Sermon Tone Analysis
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Prayer
My desire for this opening series of 2023 is to see your faith in God’s future grace strengthened.
I want you to be so confident in God’s future grace for 2023, that no matter the storms that come your faith holds strong.
Paul concludes by saying...
He asks a simple question…
Since God is for us, who can be against us?
How can he ask such a question?
Question:
“Who can be against us?”
There must be some basis for this rhetorical question.
What is the basis for this question?
What are the “these things” that Paul is referring to?
We need to look back to the verses just prior.
Basis for Hope
“The Root System”
Jump back up to verse 28.
All good things come to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
This is a profound promise.
It promises that everything that happens to us is ULTIMATELY for our GOOD.
Sickness
Trial
Death
Persecution
Everything!
Why does a person love God?
How does someone know they are called according to His purpose?
Why did you become a Christian?
Consider with me, an oak tree.
When you think about the tree as a sapling, it appears very weak and fragile.
But think about the same tree 200 years later as being a massive oak tree.
The tree provide shade,
habitation for animals,
maybe even a swing for a child.
But that tree is not all that it appears on the surface.
The tree has a root system which supplies, life, and all sustenance to it.
That tree could’ve never existed as a sapling apart from its root system.
Paul is forcing us to look at the root system.
A reality which is currently unseen from our view he is asking us to consider.
Paul is pointing at that God is the ULTIMATE cause behind your salvation.
God is the CAUSE
This DOES NOT remove the need to exercise faith.
What Paul is doing here is assuring the believer that FAITH will achieve it’s goal!
Paul is about to answer that question in the next couple of verses...
This is what has been referred to as the golden chain of redemption.
The golden chain that we could spend many weeks unpacking and looking at each word in turn.
Foreknown
“Knew Beforehand”
Romans 8:29 (ESV)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined
To say that God has known us beforehand is to present something which is surely mind boggling.
Before the foundations of the world, as Ephesians says..
Ephesians 1:4 (ESV)
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
The idea we should be grappling with here is that God has known us long before we ever knew Him.
God knew what we would be like.
He knew what kind of sinners we would be.
He knew
Not only has God foreknown us but He has…
Predestined
“Determined Us”
This word for predestined essentially means to “decide upon beforehand, predetermine” (BDAG)
God has determined that we as individuals would be conformed to the image of His Son.
Romans 8:29 (ESV)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,
So when we read in Genesis 1:27
The image that God was setting forward to humans was based upon THE IMAGE of God.
Which is God the Son.
So the ONES who God knew beforehand that He was going to redeem, He also determined to be conformed to Christ’s image.
Paul is saying that God is the author of our salvation, and that from beginning to end.
We are not to think that God can take action only when we graciously give him permission.
Ephesians 1:4–5 (ESV)
In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
Called
“Chose Us”
Romans 8:30 (ESV)
And those whom he predestined he also called,
Calling describes the effects of saving grace on a person which comes through the gospel message.
This is the effective calling.
“Let there be light!”
“Lazarus, COME OUT!”
His call of the gospel on the heart of the believer that accomplishes its purposes.
Justified
“Declared Us Right”
Romans 8:30 (ESV)
And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified,
A person is justified by faith…
The ones who have been effectually called have been justified.
He also is the ONE who “Declares us Right” before Him.
Glorified
“Made Us Holy”
Glorified is the future reality of believers.
But he speaks of us in the past tense to show the surety which they can hope in this coming to pass.
What Shall We Say?
Can anything stand against the person that God has worked all this for?
Is it possible for anything to stand in the way of the person who God has decidedly worked in?
The logic is: You will be glorified someday because you have been declared righteous,
you have been declared righteous because God has called you in the gospel,
you have been called in the gospel because God determined who will be His children,
and He determined you to come to Him in His perfect foreknowledge.
1 Thessalonians 1:4–5 (ESV)
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