Join us in a captivating conversation that challenges and expands the boundaries of faith as traditionally understood. We venture into the profound themes of divine predestination and the individual’s call to faith, examining how God uses life’s ups and downs to bring us closer to Him. Through the lens of Romans 8, this episode offers listeners an opportunity to reconsider their understanding of scriptural predestination, justification, and glorification. We also touch on the importance of personal belief and how divine grace has preordained our paths for a greater purpose.
So Paul says we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. And here when you hear the words to those who are called according to his purpose, Let me tell you that the mind starts shrinking, and the faith starts shivering, because we wonder then whether there are just a few that God has called. And then Paul goes on to say, for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. Wow. So this begins to shake our faith a little bit. We were getting so confident in the truth that God… works everything to our good, and that he is bringing to fruition and redemption the whole creation, and now we’re hearing about those who are called and those who are predestined. So what does it mean? Well, we’re not going to jump ahead. We will soon be coming to Romans 9 through 11, and there you will learn that all people have been predestined. They have all been elected. But what God does is he calls people at different times in their lives, when the circumstances have prepared them. What leads to our being called? Well, very often it’s to what leads to it is our losses and our disappointments and our crushing defeats. We are brought to an end of ourselves. We are brought to the place where we realize we have no resources to cope in this world. And that is the very moment God arranges for many of us so that we call upon the name of the Lord. Because so few people will call upon the name of the Lord when they’re quite satisfied with their situation. Isn’t that so? When you’re all comfortable and everything’s going hunky-dory, why call upon the Lord? We call upon the Lord in our desperation, in our emptiness, when we have come to the end of our resources. And it is God who has engineered that end, let me tell you. That is why we talked a little bit yesterday and the day before about the two wills involved in all circumstances of life. There’s the will of Satan, and there’s the will of God. God has allowed Satan to continue to exist even though he is a defeated foe. You remember that I told you the other day that you can see in the book of Revelation that Satan was cast down from heaven, having been defeated. He was defeated, and so he came to the world as a defeated being. Why was that? Well, it’s very hard for us to know, but we can make certain assumptions. Obviously, God is revealing his victory through Satan’s defeats in this world. God wants us to know that he is the victor, that he loves us, that he is for us, and that it is Satan who is against us, evil forces, and he is defeating them for our sake. Now, all of this ties in with this great news about being called. Why are you and I called? We have been called. Well, first of all, do you know that you’re called? Well, of course you do. Those who have faith in Jesus Christ have been called, because faith is a gift from God. It is not something that the mind conjures up. You have evidence of your calling by the very fact that you believe. Why did God lead you to believe as opposed to a family member of yours or some friends of yours? so that you might be a vessel of mercy to show his mercy to those who have not yet been called. That’s the whole purpose of the plan of salvation, to save you and then to lead you to proclaim to others. Now, you may say, well, I do a poor job of that, and I know sometimes the circumstances don’t seem to fit most of the time, in fact, when we should speak of Christ’s name. But there are those times when we do, and we realize that God spoke through us, that God gave us a moment to be an encouragement to somebody. We may not give the whole gospel, but we give something. Somebody may be downcast, discouraged, having lost a loved one or a job, and we are able to let that person know that things work together for good. as you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that may lift that person into faith. You see, Paul says in verse 29, for whom he foreknew, and what your shrinking mind is going to say is, or think, is that, well, he foreknew some people, but he didn’t foreknow the rest. Well, that is simply an interpretation that your mind is putting on that verse by default. How do you know that he doesn’t foreknow everybody? And anyway, what does foreknowing mean? Does it simply mean that God knows way ahead of time, maybe before even the creation of the world, who would believe in him and who would not? No, it doesn’t mean that. It means that God made a plan for that person before the creation of the world. God knew that person intimately and made a plan for him. or her. But does he do it just for a few, or for everyone? Again, when we get to Romans 9 through 11, you’re going to discover, to your delight, that God foreknows everyone. And by the way, this foreknow, foreknowledge, is the same word that is used about God foreordaining Christ to be the Savior of the world. So in the word foreknow is not simply knowing the future beforehand, but preordaining the future, because Jesus was preordained. to be our Saviour, and we have been preordained. Before the creation of the world, God set his heart upon this planet. He knew that there would be a fall. He knew the future. Yet he decided to create humanity. And he decided not to destroy Satan, but cast him to the earth. So what’s the picture? Well, the picture is somehow that God is revealing himself through the deliverance he is able to bring us and the grace he is able to bring us through the forces of evil. Apparently, that is what we have to know before we enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s not that God is going to reveal how bad sin is so that we won’t do it anymore, because sin never teaches anybody anything. But what is being taught is grace through sin and grace through mercy, rather grace through evil. God is showing how he is merciful even when we are defeated and broken and ruined and have fallen into Satan’s ways. God is going to bring us through. He foreknew whom he foreknew, that is, he knew beforehand all the creation, he also predestined. God has predestined this planet to be saved. Now, you’re going to have to stretch your mind at this point, because as I say, you look at these verses in fear, and your mind shrinks and thinks that God is speaking or thinking about only a certain few. But there’s no evidence that this is talking about only a certain few in the verses themselves. Read them for yourself, Romans 8, verses 28 and 29 and 30. You can just as well read in these verses that he’s talking about everyone, for whom he foreknew, that is, everyone, all the people that he foreknows, he also predestines. What does he predestine us to? He predestines us to be conformed to the image of his Son. Now, that may seem a little obscure in many ways, but think of it, how you’re being conformed to the image of this world. Maybe you’re an alcoholic, maybe you’re a drug addict, maybe you’re a sex addict, maybe you’re a food addict, maybe you’re just so involved in the thought forms of this world that you don’t even realize you’ve been conformed to destructive forces, to destruction itself. and that conformity is just the norm for you. But wait a minute. If that’s what conformity is to the world, then think of conformity to God’s Son. God is conforming you by converting you by bringing repentance to you so that you trust in His righteousness, not in your own, so that you believe in Him, in becoming loving and merciful to others, just as you have been loving and merciful to them, in wanting to do good to them and not harm them, in wanting to bring love to others instead of hate, not wanting to step over each other but giving another rather, but giving that person an advantage, a hand up, All of these beautiful things are you being conformed to his Son. This is what God’s plan is. He plans to have a human race that will reflect the image of God. Now, don’t get into perfectionism and think that this has all to happen in this world, because the fact is, this world keeps, that is, we still maintain our brokenness in this world, even though we are being converted and sanctified. But this will come when the glory of Christ returns, when Christ returns in all his glory, and we put on immortality and incorruptibility. We shall be like Jesus Christ. We know not what we shall be like now, but when he comes, we shall see him as he is. And that ability to see him as he is will be a demonstration that we are like him. We are able to be like him. you see then there is a great destiny. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, and whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified. Now remember that word justification in this list, because if you feel that you are not conformed to his image yet, and that you’re not good enough for all this, remember that Jesus, who called you, justified you. And the word justified means declares you innocent. You’re not innocent, but you are declared innocent in what? In his innocence, in his righteousness. You are treated as if you were a righteous person as you trust in Jesus Christ. That is the amazing truth we are looking at here. And so, what Paul is trying to get at is this. This chapter, which is as you know about freedom from the power of death, having entered the resurrection of Jesus by faith, This chapter is teaching us what the ultimate end of all this living by faith in Christ’s resurrection is. It is that we have been foreknown by God before ever we were born. We are being predestined to eternal life, and all the world along with us, even though they have to go through judgments yet before they will accept him, and we are being conformed to his image, and in doing that, God has declared us innocent in the righteousness of Christ. This is our destiny, and it is incumbent upon us to keep believing, to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, to help us to walk through this world and to get to the other shore, because he is the pilot of our boat. Don’t for a moment doubt that God can do this, no matter how dark your circumstances are now. He can do it, and he will do it, because he saw you before ever the world was born, and he said, I want that man, I want that woman in my kingdom. Thanks for listening today. You’ve been listening to this broadcast through your phone, perhaps. You can hear this broadcast any time of the night on your smartphone. Simply download a free app, soundcloud.com or podbean.com and key in how it happens when you get there. If you would care to make a donation to keep the broadcast going as listener-supported radio, please send your donation to FaithQuest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160. Thanks so much. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
