Yesterday we studied the fact that the Lord works all things together for those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose. If you are in Christ, you have a calling on your life. You are called to become more and more like Him. As we begin today the Apostle Paul has something more to say about this calling, "For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified." (Romans 8:29-30)
There is a lot of controversy about the topic of predestination, as if before He made the world God chose who He would save and who He would reject. This is not what the Apostle Paul is saying. The Lord makes His offer of salvation to every human being, but at the same time He knows who will accept His offer. We have the free will to choose; He doesn't force His will onto us. If we reject His offer we can't blame Him and claim He rejected us before He created us. Because we have the free will to choose, and because God knows all things, He knows who will accept His offer of salvation. So He has a great destiny in store for all who will accept, and that destiny is to become more and more like His Son. This is why Christ is the "firstborn among many brothers and sisters". Brothers and sisters tend to resemble each other, and if we are the brothers and sisters of Christ then we should resemble Christ.
I think we could paraphrase what Paul is saying like this, "God knew who would accept His Son, so He predestined those who would accept His Son to look like His Son. Because they accepted His calling, they are justified in Christ. Because they accepted His calling, they will be glorified in Christ." It could be that the Romans, being Gentiles, feared God didn't consider them a chosen people. They weren't of the lineage of Abraham and they didn't have the law and the prophets. But Paul assures them that if they belong to Christ they are as much of the lineage of Christ as any man or woman of Israel. They are very much a chosen people, for before God created the world He had already decided to call the Gentiles into His family. Paul doesn't want the Gentile believers to think they are worth less in the eyes of God than anyone else.
Now, since we are the children of God and the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, who can say anything against us? Who can take our salvation away from us? "What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) Amen! Who can accuse us of anything to the One who has justified us? Who can tear us out of the Father's hand? Who can revoke the salvation we have in Christ? No one!
"He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all---how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died---more than that, who was raised to life---is at the right hand of God interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" (Romans 8:31-35) No one on earth or in hell can bring charges against those whom God has justified. If we are in Christ, no one has the power to separate us from Him. In Paul's day persecution against Christians had already broken out, and under Emperor Nero persecution was soon going to come against Christians in Rome as viciously as it came against the Jews in Nazi Germany. But nothing man can do and nothing Satan can do will ever separate Christ from those who belong to Him.
"As it is written: 'For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'" (Romans 8:36) The apostle quotes from Psalm 44 in which the sons of Korah cry out to God for help, reminding Him they have not turned away from Him and asking if He has turned away from them. The sons of Korah feared that persecution meant God had forsaken them. In the days of the sons of Korah, hardship was not a sign God had rejected His faithful ones, and persecution in Paul's day was not a sign God had rejected the believers, and persecution in our own day does not mean God has rejected us. Everyone who wants to lead godly lives in Christ Jesus will face some sort of persecution. (2 Timothy 3:12) This is because the world hates Christ and, by association, Christians. Persecution may not take the form of beatings, imprisonment, or death. But it may take the form of social or work-related rejection, ridicule, or exclusion.
Are we going to be defeated by anything that comes against us in this world? "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." (Romans 8:37) Paul says that in Christ we are "hupernikao", which means "super conquerors". Paul's use of this word means we are not just victorious in one battle, or victorious in a few battles, but victorious in all battles. To say a person is a hupernikao is saying he or she has achieved a decisive, overwhelming, and permanent victory.
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39) Amen! Christ is with us every second of every day. He will never leave us or forsake us. (Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5) In times of distress we may be so anxious we don't feel His presence, but we were never meant to live by our feelings but by what the word of God says. Christ loves us. Christ is for us. Christ is with us.
No comments:
Post a Comment