| How We Are Saved, Part 18: God's Viewpoint - God Glorified Us |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, December 15 2008 00:00 |
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Again, to understand how God sovereignly accomplished our salvation in Christ, we look to the key passage, the "golden chain" of Rom. 8:28-30: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 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. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." The final link in the chain is glorification. That refers to going to heaven. That is when we share in Christ's inheritance as sons of God (Rom. 8:16-17). This is the inheritance which Peter describes: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." (1 Pet. 1:3-5) Here Peter says that the end result of God's giving us a new birth is that we shall obtain an inheritance. He says that the inheritance cannot perish or be defiled, it will not fade away, and it has our name on it: it is reserved in heaven for us. He tells us that God assumes responsibility to protect us and that He does so by faith, the very faith that is a gift of His grace and by which He declared us righteous. That same faith will endure among God's chosen ones to the end and bring us to glory. Jesus prayed that those who believe in Him would come to be with him and to behold His glory (John 17:24). He affirmed that He had done the work the Father gave him to do and given eternal life to all those the Father gave to Him (verse 2). Nothing could be more secure than our eternal salvation! Note that all the verbs in the golden chain of Romans 8:29-30 are in the past tense. Remember that we are seeing salvation from God's perspective, not our own. While we may struggle and have doubts in this life, God has no doubts. He sees our salvation as a "done deal," as a finished product. It is a gift that we did nothing to gain and can do nothing to lose. It is secure! |
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