God's Purpose - Part 1 (Romans 8:29-30)
INTRODUCTION:
In Romans 8:28 it is stated, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NASB95)[1] At the end of last week’s message I said that Paul goes into greater detail in the next two verses explaining what God’s purpose is in redeeming for Himself a people that He will ultimately take to be with Him forever. This morning we are going to look at the purpose of salvation and then Paul expands from the purpose to also give us the progression of salvation from God’s perspective. Over the past two weeks and throughout this chapter we have talked several times about a believer’s eternal security, that once saved always saved. Paul in these two verses makes this abundantly clear that we are eternally secure in Christ, the salvation that we have because of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death on our behalf, His burial and resurrection will not and cannot be taken from us, it will be brought to completion by the sovereignty and power of God. Let’s pray and then get into our passage for this morning.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
If you are following along in your Bible this morning, please turn to Romans 8:29-30. Listen while I read our passage for us this morning.
Romans 8:29-30,
“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” (Romans 8:29–30, NASB95)[2]
THE PURPOSE OF SALVATION (Romans 8:29b)
There are a lot of big theological words in these two verses and we are going to get to them and look at each one of them separately, but first I want to focus on God’s purpose of salvation which is given to us in the end of verse 29, it is a two-fold purpose and Paul first states the secondary purpose and then the primary purpose of salvation. Paul begins this verse with the little conjunction “for” which can also be translated because, this is a continuation of verse 28, Paul is about to explain the purpose to which we have been called and that two-fold purpose is stated in the words, “… to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;” (Romans 8:29b, NASB95)[3]
CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST
From before the foundation of the world God planned and chose to save sinners from their sins in order that they would become conformed to the image of His Son. Every person who has put their faith in Jesus Christ for salvation is for the rest of their life moving towards perfection, to becoming like Christ. This is part of God’s purpose for salvation, to create for Himself a people who are Christlike, who will be eternally righteous and holy, this people will be the citizens of God’s kingdom, and the children of His family. If it were possible for a person to lose their salvation then God would fail to fulfill His purpose of salvation to conform us to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. This would also mean that the seal of the Holy Spirit would mean nothing, because it could be broken if we could lose our salvation.
Think of what we have already learned in this chapter leading up to the truth in this verse that God will, without exception, complete the salvation of every true believer in Christ. Paul began this chapter stating that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1), he goes on in verse 9 and tells us that every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and that we are the adopted children of God and because we are children of God, we are heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17). Finally, we learned that the Holy Spirit helps our weakness and intercedes for us according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27) So with the very first verse in this chapter Paul has been teaching the eternal security of the believer, that the salvation that God has begun in our life He will carry onto completion, we will be like Christ. One day we will be glorified, it is a fact because God has said that we will be conformed to the image of His Son.
What does this mean? Two things we know from the New Testament about what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ. First, we will be like Him bodily. Paul told that Philippians in Philippians 3:20-21, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” (Philippians 3:20–21, NASB95)[4] Paul told us earlier in Romans 6:5, “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,” (Romans 6:5, NASB95)[5] The image of Christ is a heavenly image as Paul told the believers in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15:49, “Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.” (1 Corinthians 15:49, NASB95)[6]
Second, we will be like Christ spiritually, we will bear the very holiness and righteousness of Christ in our heavenly bodies and will be sinless and righteous and perfect inside and out. Paul told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NASB95)[7] This is just a glimpse of what the future holds for us and I do not believe we can fully comprehend what it will be like to be conformed to the image of Christ until it becomes a reality, as John wrote in 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” (1 John 3:2, NASB95)[8]
THAT CHRIST WILL BE PREEMINENT
To be conformed to the image of His Son I said was the secondary aspect of God’s purpose for salvation. His primary and supreme purpose for salvation is to glorify His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ by making Him preeminent, which simply means He is superior to all, He is supreme, there is no one greater, no one more glorious than Christ. Paul makes this known in verse 29 by writing that God’s purpose for salvation is for Christ to “…be the firstborn among many brethren;” (Romans 8:29b, NASB95)[9] John MacArthur writes, “In Jewish culture the term first-born always referred to a son, unless a daughter was specifically stated. Because the first-born male child in a Jewish family had a privileged status, the term was often used figuratively to represent preeminence. In the present context that is clearly the meaning.”[10]
The brethren referred to that the Lord Jesus Christ is the firstborn among are believers, this term is used often in the New Testament to refer to true Christians, those who are a part of God’s family. God’s primary or main purpose in redeeming mankind and conforming him to the image of Christ was to create for Himself a family in which the Lord Jesus Christ would be uniquely preeminent among the children of God’s family. We who have put our faith in Jesus Christ as we have already learned are the adopted children of God and Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, calls us His brothers and sisters in God’s family. This is the purpose that God redeems us and conforms us to the image of His Son that the Son might reign over and be preeminent over a redeemed and glorified heavenly race.
Paul speaks of this truth of the primary purpose of God saving us in some of His other epistles, for the purpose of glorifying His Son. In Philippians 2:9-10 Paul wrote, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” (Philippians 2:9–10, NASB95)[11] Paul also in writing to the believers in Colossae wrote concerning Christ in Colossians 1:18, “He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” (Colossians 1:18, NASB95)[12]
In the beginning, God’s crowning point in creation was to create mankind in His image, mankind in God’s image was to honor and glorify God by serving and obeying Him. But we know that Adam and Eve rebelled against God and in doing so were separated from God and brought physical and spiritual death and judgment on themselves and all humanity. God in His love for mankind had to provide a way to bring fallen, sinful, rebellious mankind back to Himself. In a plan made before the creation of the world, His Son, Jesus Christ would provide the way back to God by becoming the perfect substitute for man, paying the penalty for sin which is death and suffering God’s wrath against sin. Those who trust in this sacrifice by faith in Jesus Christ are forgiven for their sins, saved from God’s wrath, and given God’s own glory.
As believer’s saved by God, conformed to the image of His Son, we will spend eternity glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ with the glory He has given us. This will be our greatest privilege for all eternity to glorify our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because of what He has done for us. We thank the Lord for our salvation and the eternal life that it brings, but our greatest thanks will be to glorify Jesus Christ for all eternity, in our glorified, sinless, perfectly righteous heavenly bodies that are like His own glorified, perfectly righteous and holy heavenly body.
THE PROGRESSION OF SALVATION (Romans 8:29-30)
Within these two verses Paul gives us the progression of salvation from God’s perspective and that progression has five parts: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification. These five parts might be called links in the chain of salvation, not just links but unbreakable links. The fact that they are unbreakable is seen in the repetition that Paul uses to move from one part of salvation to the next, he uses the connecting phrase “He also…” and thus links each part to the prior part or aspect of salvation. A few weeks ago, I described it as an equation that if you removed one part it would not equal salvation, in the same way if you were to remove one link in the chain it would not be salvation. God again is the subject, the “He” refers back to God in verse 28 and the truth that Paul is showing in this progression is that no one God foreknows will fail to be predestined, called, justified and glorified. In these two verses God is speaking from eternity past to eternity future and yet within this we see the eternal security of the believer because all of it is in the past tense as if it is already a done deal and in God’s eyes it is because those He foreknew are those who are glorified. This security is so sure that even believers that are not yet born are expressed in the past tense, as if this progression has already occurred and been completed. In God’s eyes because He is not bound by time as we are, this progression is complete. We are going to look at each link in this chain of the salvation that is ours by faith in Jesus Christ, we will not get through all five this morning, but we will get started.
The first link in the chain of salvation is God’s foreknowledge. Paul begins verse 29 by stating, “For those whom He foreknew…” (Romans 8:29a, NASB95)[13] A believer is someone whom God foreknew, salvation does not begin with a person’s decision to trust in Jesus Christ as his Savior. Now I know and I hope you understand that repentant faith is absolutely necessary for salvation and it is how a person first responds to God for salvation, but this does not initiate salvation. As we look at salvation from God’s perspective, faith is not even mentioned in these two verses.
Now it seems reasonable that because God is not bound by time, because He is omniscient that He is able to look to the end of history and beyond and to know in advance every detail to the most insignificant occurrence. But I believe it is neither biblical nor logical to say that God looked ahead through time and saw who would believe and because He knew who would believe chose those individuals for salvation. Just think about this for a moment, if this was what is meant by foreknowledge, then salvation would be initiated by man’s faith and God would be required to grant salvation to those who initiated it by their faith. If this were the case, then God would not be the initiator of salvation and His grace would not be needed. If it is true that faith is the initiator of salvation, where does that faith come from? It certainly did not come from sinful man, remember that before salvation we are God’s enemies, we were children of wrath. Sinful man hates God and nothing within would lead him to put his trust in God whom he is rebelling against. Before salvation we are blind and dead to the things of God. There is no saving faith within a sinner. Paul speaking of this truth said in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” (1 Corinthians 2:14, NASB95)[14] In other words only the spiritually minded can see the worth of the things of the Spirit of God. Not only that but Paul also reminds us that Satan blinds the minds of unbelievers, he wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:3–4, NASB95)[15]
God in His omniscience certainly foresees the faith of every person who is saved, at the same time the Bible also is clear that although man cannot be saved apart from repentant faith, and that faith like every other part of salvation is a gift of God, and it originates with God and is empowered by God alone. Last Sunday I ended my message with John 1:12-13 which says that saving faith, the right to become children of God does not come from being born “…of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:13b, NASB95)[16] Paul also informs us that even our faith is a gift of God in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8–9, NASB95)[17]
When Scripture speaks of God’s foreknowledge it is not in reference to His omniscience or to what God foresees, but to what He has foreordained. In other words, God not only sees faith in advance, but He ordains faith in advance. The Apostle Peter also said this in the opening verses of 1 Peter concerning Christians, he wrote in 1 Peter 1:1-2, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.” (1 Peter 1:1–2, NASB95)[18] Then down a few verses in 1 Peter 1:20 Peter writes that Christ was foreknown, he writes, “For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you” (1 Peter 1:20, NASB95)[19] John MacArthur writes concerning these two verses, “The term means the same thing in both places. Believers are foreknown in the same way Christ is foreknown. That cannot mean foreseen, but must refer to a predetermined choice by God.”[20] This is the only way we can understand how Christ was foreknown from the foundation of the world, it was predetermined or foreordained by the Godhead that He would be the Savior. If this is true, then in the same way it was predetermined or foreordained by God that you would be saved.
Not only does foreknew having this meaning of foreordained but it also speaks of love for another being. The Greek word for “foreknew” is a compound word that literally means to know beforehand, but the part that means “to know” speaks of an intimate knowledge of someone, not just to know about someone, not just to know that they exist. The word translated “to know” can mean to have intimate relations with someone. You know this person intimately because you love them. God knows us intimately, the psalmist in Psalm 139:13-16 wrote, “For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.” (Psalm 139:13–16, NASB95)[21] God knows everything about us, and He has a predetermined love for those He has preordained to save.
CONCLUSION:
I am going to stop here this morning; we have looked at the purpose of salvation and the first link in the chain of salvation. God has called us according to His purpose. His purpose is that we might be conformed to the image of His Son, that we will one day when our salvation is complete have a body like that of the Lord Jesus Christ, a glorified heavenly body and that we might not only have a body like His own, but we will be spiritually conformed to His image as well. We will be like Him in that we will be sinless and righteous, bearing His glory and His righteousness for all eternity and this is so that we might worship the Lord Jesus Christ as the preeminent One over all. We see in Scripture in numerous places crowns spoken of that we may receive, the crown of righteousness, the crown of life, the crown of glory and what a privilege it will be to cast those crowns at the feet of Jesus as we worship Him in all His glory. We see this scene in the book of Revelation in chapter 4, verse 10-11 which says, “…the twenty-four elders [who represent the church] will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, ‘Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.’” (Revelation 4:10–11, NASB95)[22] I do not know about you, but I look forward to that day, unending worship as we glorify the Lord Jesus Christ as the preeminent One.
We also looked at God’s foreknowledge and the fact that He foreordained our salvation and this is not something to fret over, but rejoice that God in His foreknowledge chose you to be His child and that He knows you and loves you and is in the process of conforming you to the image of His Son through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Can we trust God that His thoughts are much higher than ours and we cannot comprehend what He knows, we cannot understand His mind? Do not try to put God in a box, but instead trust and allow Him to be God. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33–36, NASB95)[23]
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[5]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[6]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[7]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[8]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[9]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[10]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 1-8. Chicago, IL : Moody Press, 1991.
[11]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[12]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[13]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[14]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[15]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[16]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[17]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[18]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[19]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[20]MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Romans 1-8. Chicago, IL : Moody Press, 1991.
[21]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[22]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.
[23]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.