The Wednesday Word

 GOOD NEWS FOR BELIEVERS (Part 1)

Romans 8: 29-39 (Read)

God loves the believer – not the religionist – Did you know there’s a big difference between a religionist and a true believer?  Religionists trust that they are members of what they think is the true church and assume that if they follow their church teaching to the best of their ability, they will get to heaven. The true believer, on the other hand, trusts and rests on the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

God loves the believer, and nothing can stop Him doing so. Do you know why I say that? It’s because of the scriptures we’ve just read … Romans 8:29-39. In Romans 8:29 we read about a people God foreknew… Quite literally they were a people He foreloved.  That’s us … the believers. We were loved before time.

Then again in verse 29 we read that these believers were predestined.  Predestination also took place before time.  Spurgeon quipped, “I’m so glad that God chose me before He saw me because if He’d waited ‘till He saw me He might not have wanted me.” Every believer has been predestined; therefore, it is safe to say that God will never stop loving them.

In verse 30 Look and see how many of the predestined people are called? …how many? … look at the text … ALL of them …”for whom He did predestinate them He also called.” And, in verse 30 we read that those He called He justified.  So just how many of the called are justified? … All of them!

But what does it mean to Justify? … It means to acquit.  For believers it means that all charges against them have been dropped.

Then again in V 30 we discover that He glorifies those whom He justifies. And how many of the justified ones does He glorify?  All of them …’for whom He justified them He also glorified.’  It’s a done deal! He is the God who sees the end from the beginning.  He sees redemption as already accomplished … He sees us as already glorified!

In biblical language this is what has been called the ‘prophetic past tense.’ Many things are set down in scripture as already accomplished which have not actually occurred in the point of time.  For example, it was possible for God to tell men in the Old Testament that their sins were paid for when Jesus had not yet come to die.  The fact is salvation was always accomplished in the mind of God.  It was a certainty and a reality though not yet completed in time.

Are you ready for this, God looks at us as if we are already in Heaven (that blows the "you can be saved and yet eventually lost" theory!)

So, let’s ask how do we bring God’s called ones back home to where they know the love of Christ? … It’s by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ crucified. It’s by the good news of His doing, dying and rising again.  It’s by the good news of the substitutionary sacrifice of the one, true and omnipotent saviour.

In Christ, we are not guilty. In Christ we are already glorified. Glorified, not because of anything we have done but because of what Jesus has done on our behalf.

The believer is saved … We are, however, still in the fight against sin (Ephesians 6:12) but saved none the less.  I love what Luther says on this matter – “a Christian is always a sinner, always a penitent yet always right with God.” Avoid those who erroneously teach that you can reach perfection, other than perfection in Christ, this side of glory.

Notice, in our passage of scripture that we have a He-He Christianity. He foreknew, He predestinated, He called, HE justified, He glorified

That’s good news – the gospel is all about Him.  It’s about who Christ Jesus is and what He has done. Sometimes we feel sure everyone else but us will make it.  But listen to me, we are already there.  We are glorified.

Then Paul asks the question v 31
“What shall we say to these things? If God be for us who can be against us.”  In other words, God is going to do all these things because,
The Foreloving belongs to God.
The Predestination belongs unto God.
The Call belongs to God.
Justification belongs to God,
And the glorification belongs to God.

Then who can be against us?

Notice that little pronoun ‘US’

The ‘US’ are the Foreloved, the Predestinated, the called, the Justified and the Glorified.

(More next time)

And that’s the Gospel Truth!

website: MilesMcKee.com