October 13, 2024

Predestined for Glory

Pastor: Allen Snapp Series: The Summit Of Our Salvation Topic: predestination Passage: Romans 8:26–30

The Summit of Our Redemption

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

Oct. 13, 2024

 

Predestined for Glory

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Rom. 8:26-30

Pray. One of my favorite zingers from Janice happened at a family gathering with all her brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews. A bunch of us were sitting out on the porch and I think some of our kids were just getting into dating relationships and that led us to talk about the awkwardness and jitters that come with dating and some of us older married couples began to relate stories of when we dated our spouses.

As I remembered those early days of dating Janice I decided to get philosophical and a little cocky as I said, “if I knew then what I know now I would have dated Janice with nothing but confidence. I wouldn’t have worried about putting my best foot forward or if I said or did something dumb or felt any of that nervous insecurity because I would know she was going to marry me!”

Without missing a beat Janice said, “if I knew then what I know now, you should’ve felt nervous and insecure!”

It was a humorous moment and Janice and I can confidently say that if we knew then what we know now, we would do it all again in a heartbeat!

But all of us can imagine things we’d do differently and ways we’d live differently if we knew then what we know now. We live in chronological time, one day at a time, one hour at a time. As much as we might wish we knew yesterday what we know today, that might mess things up in ways we can’t even imagine. In God’s wisdom He ordained that we live yesterday not knowing what today would bring and we live today not knowing what tomorrow will bring.

For the Christian, it makes faith and hope necessary. We trust God today and hope in God for our tomorrows.

But what if we could know now what we will know then? What if we could know on this day what we will know on that day?

That’s where Romans 8 takes us: into the future God has planned for us. We are meant to know now what we will know then.

Verse 27 tells us that the Spirit intercedes for believers according to the will of God and the will of God is found in vv. 28-29

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

It is the will of God to work all things together for good – we know that. The storms in our life right now, will work out for good in our lives. The trials in our life right now, will work out for good. The blessings we enjoy right now will work out for good. Because God is sovereignly working them out for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

But what is that good? Verse 29 tells us:

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 

The good is that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus. Predestined means a predetermined destiny. In the Greek the word predestined – prohorizdo – means to determine a horizon and set out for it. All the things that come into our life is taking us to a bright horizon that God has predetermined. A destiny that God has predetermined. That glorious horizon is to make us more like Jesus. That we as adopted sons and daughters of God might bear the family resemblance and look more like our big brother Jesus.

The most important thing about you isn’t what you have, it’s who you are and who you are becoming!

God is working through all things to make us more like Jesus. More patient. More gracious. More courageous. More loving. More self-controlled.

Art Monk was being inducted in the football hall of fame, when his son James got up to share a few thoughts. James said the question he’s asked most often is do you want to be like Art Monk when you grow up? His answer was, I’d rather be like Dad.

When people thought of Art Monk they thought of receptions and yardage and NFL greatness. When James thought of Art Monk, he thought of a dad who was there for him in little things and big. A dad who loved him and taught him how to be a man and listened to him when he needed a friend.

Our heavenly Father is working all the things that enter our lives out for our good – that is, to make us more like His Son Jesus. That’s the greatest good we could ever hope for. As adopted children, the Spirit within us cries “Abba, Father!” as we are become more and more like our brother and co-heir Jesus.

Application: let’s pause a moment and apply this to what’s going on in our lives right now. How does

God want to use whatever’s going on in your life right now to make you more like Jesus? To make you more loving? More patient? To give you greater boldness and courage when fear knocks on your heart? To strengthen your faith in the face of doubt?

Then we come to what’s been called the Golden Chain. The chain begins in verse 29:

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

The reason this is called the Golden Chain is because ALL those whom God foreknew He predestined and all those whom He predestined He called and all that He called He justified (made righteous) and all He justified He glorified. Not some He foreknew or some He predestined or some He called. All those he foreknew he glorified. No break in the chain, no lost links.

We can know now what we will know then!

Chapter 8 speaks strong assurance to the soul of every Christian. There is now no condemnation. We are adopted and God is our Father! We are destined for glory! It’s such a sure thing Paul puts it in the past tense. He glorified.

One year our family went to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls and our youngest son Matthew was just big enough and precocious enough that I had to hold onto his hand very tightly for fear of him getting away from me and going over the falls. As we stood just a few feet and a small railing away from the raging river I had this fear of him going over and me being helpless to save him, and so I held on tightly. Love holds on tightly.

God’s love for us is the love of a Father – we are more precious to Him than words can say. And His grip is infinitely strong – nothing can break it or wrest those whom He foreknew away from Him. If He foreknows us, then we will bring us to glorification.

So…a question we can’t avoid is, what does it mean those whom He foreknew? That’s the first link in this golden chain.

When we talk about God’s foreknowledge, we are talking about a God who doesn’t interact with time the way we do. He did know then what He knows now. In the beginning of time God was already eternally existing, and He is already at the end of time. He is the Alpha and Omega.

God knew every human being who would ever live before the foundations of the world but we also know that every human doesn’t receive the end result of the Golden Chain (glorification) so foreknew must mean something different than knowing the person before they were born.

In the Bible to know someone means to have a relationship with them. When Jesus tells some people “depart from me, I never knew you” he’s not saying he doesn’t know who they are, he’s saying I have no relationship with you. So God foreknowing us means He has set His love upon us and we have entered into a relationship with God.

God knew you before you were born. You weren’t an accident. Eph. 1 says that before the foundation of creation He chose us in Christ and in love predestined us for adoption in Christ. He didn’t adopt nameless, faceless future souls, it says in love He predestined us. He loved you before there was a you to love!

There is mystery in this. How could there not be? We live our lives in the chronology of time – we didn’t know then what we know now and we don’t know now what we will know tomorrow. It’s just how we live. But we know that through faith in Christ we have been saved and brought into loving relationship with God as our Father.

Not because of what we have done but solely because of what Christ did for us.

We live in the place of unknown horizons – we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Or the tomorrow after that. Or the tomorrow after that.

But we do know that God has predetermined our ultimate horizon to be to live with God in glory forever and nothing in heaven or earth can change that horizon. Paul will crescendo this chapter with that assurance. We don’t know what our near future holds but we know Who holds our future. And we do know as believers that when we look on the horizon, we see the glory of the risen Son rising on our forever future and his glory revealed in us on that day when we see Jesus face to face and fully become like him.

Through God’s promises we can know now what we will know then! Let’s hold onto those promises and let the Spirit work through today’s situations to make us more like Jesus. Not so that we will be loved but because we are loved and nothing can break that love. Nothing can change that horizon.

In faith we can know now what we will know then: we are secure eternally and forever in Christ!