A lesson by Pastor John Skaggs

Sovereign Grace Baptist Church

P.O. Box 1447, Claypool, Az. 85532

520-425-8345 or 520-402-9134

Web Page: www.oocities.org/heartland/plains/3364

Email: pastorjohn@gila.net

Date: 05-7-00

Sermon Number: 44

Text: Romans 8:29-30

I begin with a quote from the book "Concise Theology" on the subject of the Christian’s eternal security. "Let it first be said that in declaring the eternal security of God’s people it is clearer to speak of their preservation than, as is commonly done, of their perseverance. Perseverance means persistence under discouragement and contrary pressure. The assertion that believers persevere in faith and obedience despite everything is true, but the reason is that JESUS CHRIST THROUGH THE SPIRIT PERSISTS IN PRESERVING THEM. Scripture emphasizes this. John tells us that Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, made a promise to His Father (John 6:37-40) and to His sheep directly (John 10:28-29) to keep them so that they never perish. In His high-priestly prayer before His crucifixion Jesus asked that those whom the Father had given Him (John 17:2, 6, 9, 24) would be preserved to glory, and it is INCONCEIVABLE that His prayer, which still continues (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25), will go unanswered", (Mr. J. I. Packer.) I can only add a hearty amen to my brother’s words.

It is with the security of the believer that we are concerned today. The whole of Romans chapter eight was written to encourage and comfort the people of God with the fact that their salvation is permanent and their entrance into heaven sure. We are, as the hymn declares, "prone to wander" from the way both in our minds and in our practice. We do not want to wander, to sin, to doubt, but we do. As a result we are sometimes spiritually depressed, frustrated, and even frightened. We want to be all that God calls us to be in Christ but we seldom are. The question is, does our doubting and poor performance put us in danger of losing our salvation. No, says Paul, we are secure in Christ in spite of our many weaknesses and failures. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus our Lord". The saved will persevere to the end because, as Mr. Packer puts it, God will preserve them to the end. Our perseverance depends entirely on Christ, by the Holy Spirit, working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure which is that we be finally saved to the praise of the glory of His grace.

The great apostle has revealed God’s determination that we be finally and eternally saved and that He governs His whole creation with our final salvation in view. (Romans 8:28) Everything happens with the Christian’s present and final salvation in view. The world spins for us, for Christians! Why is God so determined that we arrive safely in Heaven? It is because our salvation will bring honor and glory to Him and His Son Jesus Christ.

That our salvation is intertwined with the Son’s exaltation is seen in Romans 8:29 NASB. "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren". The term brethren is a synonym for believers. God’s primary purpose in His plan of redemption is to make His beloved Son the first-born among many brethren. That is, Christ is to be the Preeminent One surrounded by the redeemed children of God from every age and race. These will be conformed to the image of His dear Son creating a virtual sea of saved believing sinners who will surround and exalt the Son as the author and finisher of their salvation. In this way our Lord’s mercy, grace, and power will be forever on display, Christ will be glorified.

In his letter to the Philippians Paul says this, (Phil. 2:9–10). "God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth" So we see that our ultimate purpose, as the redeemed children of God, will be to spend eternity worshipping and giving praise to God’s beloved first-born, our preeminent Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the centerpiece of Redemption. To the Colossians, Paul tells us that Christ is not only the "head of the body, the church, but He is also Colossians 1:18 KJV, ". . . the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence". This is the reason for our salvation, that Christ might be the first born and Preeminent One ruling and reigning over and being worshiped by all those who were saved by His blood. This is God’s plan for the glorification of His dear Son and it cannot fail. Therefore, our salvation is sure and certain.

In the text we deal with today Paul takes us five steps closer to an understanding of the believer’s security in Christ. (Romans 8:29-30 NASB) "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren; {30} and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified". Foreknowledge, Predestination, Calling, Justification, and Glorification. These are the five unbreakable links in the believing sinners salvation that will take him, without fail, to heaven. No one whom God foreknows will fail to be predestined, called, justified, and finally glorified by and with Him.

Redemption began with God’s foreknowledge which is the first link in this golden chain of redemption. Contrary to popular opinion, salvation is not initiated by a person’s decision to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The Bible is clear that repentance and faith are essential to salvation and must be exercised by us in our coming to Christ. However, the Bible is equally clear that the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve are dead in their sins and do not possess the ability to repent and believe in Christ. The Bible teaches that repentance and faith are gifts given to those whom God, in eternity past, foreknew. Our salvation began with God’s foreknowledge, everything else flows from that.

As I indicated when we last studied this chapter God’s foreknowledge is not a reference to His foresight but to His foreordination. Which means that God did not choose men because He saw they would believe in His Son. Rather, He choose men for salvation and then gave them the gifts of faith and repentance by which they trusted in Christ. In other words, God’s electing of some men to salvation has nothing to do with what He saw in them but with what He determined to make them, Christians.

In addition to the idea of foreordination, the term foreknowledge speaks of a love relationship. Consider the words of Matthew 7:21-23 NASB. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. {22} "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' {23} "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.' We must think carefully here. If Christ is God and is, therefore, Omniscient, knowing all things past and future, then this statement, "I never knew you", cannot mean He was unaware of the existence or identity of the "many" whom He rejects in the text. The Bible credits Christ with the creation of all humans, therefore, He knows them very well indeed. What the statement actually means is that, God/Christ, did not know them in the sense of having loved them from all eternity with the intent of saving them. Foreknowledge has to do with God setting His love upon a portion of humanity and then foreordaining the salvation of these same people. These He knows or loves the rest of humanity He does know in the save way. The man in the text was not one of those Christ foreknew in a soul saving sense, therefore, He says, "I never knew you". Foreknowledge involves Divine love which desires to save and foreordination which effectively accomplishes that salvation. This brings us to the second link in this blessed chain of redemption, predestination.

In the first few verses of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he makes the following statement about the Christians to whom he writes the letter. (Ephesians 1:3-5 NASB) "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, {4} just as He (God) chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. IN LOVE HE PREDESTINED US (Here is that aspect of foreknowledge which is a divinely initiated love relationship between God and His elect people. This love gave birth to God’s foreordaining or predestining us to actually experiencing salvation.) IN LOVE (Or, because of God’s love for us.) HE PREDESTINED US to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will".

Much of modern evangelism gives the impression that salvation rests entirely on a person’s decision for Christ. But when the Bible is allowed to speak without interruption we find that we are not Christians because of what we decided about Christ but because of what God decided about us before the foundation of the world. "We love Him because He first loved us". (I John 4:19) We were able to choose Him only because He had first chosen us, "according to the kind intention of His will." Our great and gracious God foreknew us and predestined us to be saved. That is why we are saved today.

The remaining links of this beautiful chain tell us just how God has accomplished our salvation in time. We know that before time existed God loved us and predestined us, but how do we come to experience the salvation He has determined will be ours? It begins with a divine, effectual, call to faith in Christ. (Romans 8:30) "And whom He predestined, these He also called".

In the very useful book "Concise Theology" we find this quote from the Westminster Confession on the subject of Effectual Calling. "All those whom God has predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His appointed and accepted time, EFFECTUALLY TO CALL, by his Word and Spirit, (God the Holy Spirit works in the heart and mind of the sinner in reference to the Word, the Gospel message, he has heard. In this way the sinner is called . .) out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; ENLIGHTENING their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, (This is not news to those who have worshiped in this house for any length of time. We understand that without this work of the Holy Spirit in the sinner he could never understand the simplest Christian truth. The call to faith in Christ would be ineffective if the Holy Spirit did not raise the sinner from his state of spiritual death to life, enlightening his mind so he can understand God’s word. The explanation continues.) taking away their heart of stone and giving unto them a heart of flesh; RENEWING THEIR WILLS, (The removal of the heart of stone from the sinner and replacing it with a heart of flesh is what we know as the rebirth. This is the rising from the dead that God must accomplish for every sinner He saves. When this rebirth has occurred the sinners will is renewed. Man’s will is naturally opposed to God, His Christ, and truth. The sinner’s will follows his heart or desire. While he has a heart of stone, a sin loving heart, He does not want to go to God. He wants nothing to do with Christ and, therefore, his will is opposed to all that is spiritual and right. God the Spirit must renew or redirect our will by giving us new hearts, i.e., new desires, wants, and longings, or we will never "choose" Christ as our Savior". But when He gives us new hearts and desires our will is changed also, simply because our desires are changed. What we want is what we will. When this work is done the sinner runs, without delay, to Jesus because that is exactly what he wants to do! The confession continues. . .) and, by His almighty power, inclining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing (calling) them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by his grace". This last statement comes from Psalms 110:3 which says, "Thy people will volunteer freely in the day of Thy power . . . ." Sinners who come willing to Christ do so because God has raised them from the dead and given them new hearts and desires. This is the call of God that results in eternal life.

Hear the same thing from the lips of another fine teacher of God’s truth. "Original sin renders all human beings naturally dead (unresponsive) to God, but in effectual calling God brings the dead to life. As the outward call of God to faith in Christ is communicated through the reading, preaching, and explaining of the contents of the Bible, the Holy Spirit enlightens and renews the heart of elect sinners so that they understand the gospel and embrace it as truth from God, and God in Christ becomes to them an object of desire and affection. Being now regenerate and able by the use of their freed will (Implying, and rightly so, that as we come forth from our mother’s wombs our will is not free but a slave of our sinful hearts.) to choose God and good, they turn away from their former pattern of living to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and to start a new life with Him. Those who are called are those in whose hearts the Holy Spirit works to lead them to saving faith in Christ". (End Quote)

Those of us who are Christian are saved today because God "CALLED US with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity". (2 Tim. 1:9) Are you a Christian today? Have you been effectively called to faith in Christ? If so you can rest forever in Him for "the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance", (Rom. 11:29). You will never be un-called to faith in Christ, your salvation is secure. Your new heart of flesh will never again turn to stone. You will always love God and His Christ.

God foreknew you, He predestined you, He has effectively called you to believe in Jesus and having believed you have been justified, which is the next link in the unbreakable chain of redemption. "and whom He called, these He also justified; (8:30)

The doctrine of justification was at the center of and indeed the cause of the Reformation. The Roman Catholic church denied that one was justified or declared right with God on the basis of faith in Christ alone. Yes, one must believe in Jesus but he must also do other things prescribed by the church to be saved. The reformers, by the Spirit of God, saw the error of their doctrine and protested. Grace and works cannot be mixed. The Catholic church would not conform to the Bible so the Reformers left the heretical church behind. They went on to create their own churches intent on adhering to the Bible exclusively and not the traditions of men. Their cry was "Justification by faith alone in Christ alone". A few texts of scripture is all it takes to confirm that we are declared righteous in the eyes of God on the basis of faith not works which we have done ourselves.

Romans 3:21-27 NASB) "But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, {22} even THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST FOR ALL THOSE WHO BELIEVE; for there is no distinction; {23} for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, {24} BEING JUSTIFIED AS A GIFT BY HIS GRACE THROUGH THE REDEMPTION WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS; {25} whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; {26} for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the JUSTIFIER of the one who has FAITH IN JESUS. {27} Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith".

By way of direct definition, "Justification is a judicial act of God pardoning sinners (wicked and ungodly persons, Rom. 4:5; 3:9-24), accepting them as just, and so putting permanently right their previously estranged relationship with Himself. This justifying sentence is God’s gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:15-17), His bestowal of a status of acceptance for Jesus’ sake (2 Cor. 5:21). When the sinner trusts in Christ for forgiveness of sins and salvation of his soul God, from that moment forward, looks upon this sinner just-as-if-he-had-never-sinned. In fact, through faith, the very righteousness of God is imputed to that believing sinner. This perfect righteousness makes him acceptable to God in Christ. From this point on through eternity it is as if this man has never sinned in his life. He is justified by God through faith in Jesus".

Those whom God foreknew he also predestined, and called to faith in Jesus. These are declared just in the eyes of God. They are in possession of the righteousness of Jesus. Finally they are and will be glorified. "and whom He justified, these He also glorified". (8:30)

There is waiting for everyone who trusts in Christ as Savior "an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison". (2 Cor. 4:17) What will our glorification consist of. First of all, we will have bodies just like Christ’s body after His resurrection. Our Lord will one day, (Phil. 3:21). "transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself". Hebrews 1:2–3 tells us just how magnificent that transformation will be by revealing to us the truth about Christ’s glory. "in these last days [God] has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And HE IS THE RADIANCE OF HIS GLORY AND THE EXACT REPRESENTATION OF HIS NATURE, . . ." The glory that is Christ’s will be ours also.

(1 JOHN 3:2). "BELOVED, NOW WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD, AND IT HAS NOT APPEARED AS YET WHAT WE SHALL BE. WE KNOW THAT, WHEN HE APPEARS, WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, BECAUSE WE SHALL SEE HIM JUST AS HE IS". This is the glorification promised and purchased by the blood of Christ for all believing sinners. Look with me at Romans 6:5. "For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, CERTAINLY we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, (1 Cor. 15:49). "Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly". This is, after all, the goal of our salvation announced back in verse twenty-nine. (Romans 8:29 NASB) For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to BECOME CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He might be the first-born among many brethren".

Paul wrote to the Thessalonians of the glory to which we have been predestined. (2 Thess. 2:14) "It was for this He called you through our gospel, THAT YOU MAY GAIN THE GLORY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST" Then in 2 Timothy 2:10 we find these words; "For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, (the elect of God chosen in Christ for salvation) that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus AND WITH IT ETERNAL GLORY".

So certain is our glorification that this last link in the golden chain of redemption is set before us in past tense. "These He also glorified." The Christians gathered here this morning do not bear the image of Christ in perfection but that glory is promised by God, therefore, it is as certain and sure as if it had already occurred. Praise be to His glorious name!

We who are Christian must learn to trust the God who saved us from His coming wrath. For His salvation is complete, permanent, and unending. We must rest in the truth that in eternity past He foreknew and determined to save us. He then predestined all things necessary to our salvation. The death of Christ, the work of the Spirit in us, as well as our believing. He set in motion unalterable events that will lead to the salvation of all His elect children. Those He foreknew, he predestined to be conformed to the image of His dear son. And those He predestined He also effectively called. Those He called He has also Justified and those He justifies He has also glorified.

Here, beloved, is the security of the believer. It does not rest in our faithfulness and integrity, but in God’s. He is faithful to do all He has promised and determined to do. Salvation is of the Lord from beginning to end. Nothing can remove us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us enter that rest which can only be found by faith alone in Christ alone.