Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 32 - Predestination - The five words that make up every Christian story.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The allotment of the land, part 32 - Predestination - The five words that make up every Christian story.  

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

 

In Rom 8:29-30, the glorious story of the saved is told in five words, "foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified."

 

Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;

 

Rom 8:30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

 

Justification - The believer is completely vindicated of all things against God by the Justice of God since through imputation at salvation, he was made perfectly righteous.

 

Because God sees His righteousness in you, He pronounces you justified. Justification is a judicial act of vindication. Justification is a judicial act of God whereby He recognizes His righteousness in us. This means that a believer is never guilty before God. This act of justification is eternal because God the Father is the eternal judge and as Sovereign, no one can overrule His judgment. If I pronounced you justified it wouldn’t be worth the wind in my lungs, but when God does so, it’s an irrevocable contract. [from The Doctrine of Salvation, Sugrue]

 

The Sculptor goes on day after day with His work of cutting the granite. Rough corners are hewn off, discolorations disappear. Jagged surfaces are made smooth. The block of granite begins to assume the shape and contour of the Sculptor's Son. But the Sculptor does not see the unfinished block of granite before Him. He sees the image of His Son as He looks right through the rough edges, the weather scarred surface.

 

Glorified: The believer shares in God's glory, which is all the goodness that He is. It is to be shared in time through spiritual growth and will ultimately be shared in heaven.

 

Many of God's promises concerning the future are given to us in the past tense. This may be called the prophetic past tense. This is a way of God describing the certainty of the future. For example, it was possible for God to tell men in the OT that their sins were paid for when Christ had not yet come to die for them. He did this because the plan of God for salvation was certain. He could establish the doctrine of forgiveness many centuries in advance.

 

Prophetic past tense: God describes the certainty of the future by stating it as if it has already come to pass.  

 

The glory of God is a very pregnant term. It has so many facets and aspects that it is more a term to be contemplated and meditated upon than defined.

 

God's glory is all that He is. His glory is revealed to man through Jesus Christ.

 

In essence it is His total essence, but not just His person, but His existence, what He plans and desires and does. All aspect of His person and work fall under the term.

 

2Co 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

 

Paul had been very distressed about the way things were going in Corinth. When he had heard that there was further trouble, which 1Co did not have the effect that he had hoped, he was compelled to pay an urgent visit. When he arrived the opposition to Paul came to a head, and one member of the church in particular took the lead in defying his authority. The others took no effective action in Paul's defense, and Paul, deeply humiliated, left Corinth. But he could not leave things as they were and he wrote another letter, a stinging letter, that he regretted as soon as Titus left with it. We do not have this letter, however, some time later Paul heard from Titus that it had a great effect upon them and they repented due to godly sorrow. Paul discovered that even though he had been so distressed for so long concerning this church that God always led him in triumph, hence he writes this in vs. 14.

 

2Co 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.

 

No matter what the reception, the knowledge of God is a sweet aroma in every place.

 

This was Paul's consolation in the midst of his many trials; and it proves that, whatever may be the external circumstances of a Christian when ministering to the world, whether poverty, want, persecution, or distress, he will have abundant occasion to give thanks to God as his efforts as an ambassador for Christ will be crowned with success.

 

The triumph is always God's.

 

This shows us unequivocally that all the opposition by the world, the flesh of men, and Satan cannot prevent the triumph of the gospel and the knowledge of God.

 

We should never fear that the truth is going to be shut off or shut down. Lies eventually will be destroyed but the truth from God will always triumph.

 

The word "triumph" is used in one other place in the NT, Col 2:15.

 

Col 2:13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

 

Col 2:14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.