The Great Eight - Pt 27

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 whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 28-30 ESV).

As we come to the close of this part of our study, it may have been a bit difficult for some to really embrace the complete lack of our ability to take this promise. It is difficult to accept the truth of our inability to determine our fate. However, the unconditional call of God apart from all human means is the path by which God maintains his purpose of election. If he did not call men without regard to their characteristics and abilities then God’s purpose of election would fall to the ground. God would become like a political candidate going from precinct to precinct to see if he might be elected Lord. God would propose, but man would dispose. The size and makeup of God’s constituency would be in debt to the vote of man. The Apostle Paul knows nothing of such a God. Instead, he says that God set his favor on Jacob and not Esau before they were born so that his purpose of election might stand, not on the basis of their deeds but only on the basis of his call, the call that accords with his purpose of election (cf. Romans 9:6-13). So, let’s remember the foundation of this great promise tucked into this chapter. This is where we who love God will find certainty that tribulation and distress and famine and nakedness and peril and sword and slaughter will, in fact, work together for their good. The answer is that those who love God are also those who have been called by God, and that this call is based not on something as fickle and uncertain as our commitment to God but only on his eternal purpose of election by which he set his favor on me without any respect to my action at all. Our confidence that all the hard and happy things in our life will, in fact, become the building blocks of our good is based not merely in the fact that there is a promise in the Bible, but also on the fact that from all eternity God in his great mercy has chosen us to enjoy his banquet and has given us evidence of our election by calling into being a heart that loves Him! All things work together for good for those who love God, those who are called according to his purpose. Whatever you are facing today shall pass into the ultimate good God has shaped for you. You don’t need to understand that; you don’t need to accept it. It has already been pronounced by God. Of course, it’s better to understand it. That helps us accept it and rest in its glorious truth! Our God has nothing but good for us!