“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:16-18 NASB1995)

Who are the children of God? They are all who, by God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, are denying self, dying daily to sin, and following our Lord Jesus in walks of surrender to him in obedience to his commands, in daily practice. This does not make us perfect, and it does not mean that we will never sin again (1 John 2:1-2), but it does mean that sin must no longer be our practice (habit, addiction), but righteousness, holiness, and obedience to our Lord and to his commands should be what we live by.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

And what kinds of sufferings? Well, the first and foremost is in our dying with Christ to sin, being reborn of the Spirit of God, and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as servants of our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living. For Satan is going to fight against us to try to get us back. So he will throw all kinds of temptations our way, and he will use other people against us to hurt us in hopes that we will give up and that we will return to living in sin.

So, if we are following Jesus Christ in his ways, according to his will, in obedience to his commands, and so we are also verbal about our faith and the gospel of our salvation, so we are speaking the truth of the gospel to the people, as opposed to the lies, we should expect that we will be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. But sadly most of our persecutors will be pastors, elders, and others who profess faith in Jesus Christ but who do not abide by the Word of God, but who make up their own truth to suit the flesh.

Yet by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

And this (above) is the true gospel that all of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ should be sharing with the world and with others who profess faith in Jesus Christ but who are following a false faith and a false gospel and a false Christ because they are listening to and they are believing in the lies being taught them by “wolves in sheep’s clothing” who serve as pastors, elders, and evangelists. For so many are now teaching that a mere profession of faith in Jesus Christ assures us of salvation and of eternal life with God.

Who Believes?

Based off Isaiah 53
An Original Work / October 3, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Gospel message, who believes?
Jesus Christ died on a tree,
Saving us from all our sin,
So we might be cleansed within.

Had no beauty found in Him,
That we should desire Him.
Man of sorrows, suffering;
Crushed for our iniquities.

Surely He has borne our griefs;
From our sadness, brings relief.
Bore the stripes; forsaken, He,
So forgiven we might be.

We, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us turned his own way.
Jesus calls, “Repent today;
My commandments, now obey.”

Jesus said, to come to him,
We must die to all our sin.
Crucified with Him, we live,
Walking in His righteousness.

Suff’ring servants, we will be,
Taking His identity on us,
When confessing Him
As our Savior, Lord and King.

If We Suffer With Him
An Original Work / February 17, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love