Rom 8-God-Centered Faith

| God-Centered Faith! Romans 8:28-32

May 20, 2007 (NIV) 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. 31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?  PRAY Scripture Memory:32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? – Romans 8:32 (NIV) Intro:This morning we are continuing to look at a subject that is very confusing to some, disturbing to others, and perhaps a little frustrating to many. It is very theological and that makes it difficult for many. For many of you this will be review, for others it will be brand new. Yet this passage and these concepts which we began looking at last week and are continuing with this morning provide the ground of confidence for what we looked at two weeks ago in v. 28.Once again we are going to be focusing on vv. 29-30The “Golden Chain”The five links of this chain:  Foreknowledge,  Predestination, Calling, Justification, GlorificationLast week: Does God Know You? – The intimacy of God’s love and foreknowledgeForeknowledgePredestinationCallingThis morning: God-centered Faith – The basis for being sure of our salvationJustificationGlorification Last week we looked at the the Crucial Question: Does God Know You? Does He know you personally, as one of his own?Two types of calls: external and internalThe external call is an invitation to any and all who would come…The external call is general and universal, an open invitation to all people to repent and turn to Christ. The internal call is specific and effectual (effective) ….John 10:27 – My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. If you are here, this morning, and you long to hear His voice, if you desire to follow Jesus…The issue is the sovereignty of God.Is God truly sovereign?Job 42:1-2 - Then Job replied to the Lord: 2 “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. If you are hungry to know God, if you desire to follow Him, then you are seeing the fruit of God’s Spirit at work in Your heart.Are you willing to let GOD define issues like Predestination and to trust in His justice and mercy, or will you insist on conforming things to what makes sense to you?This morning: Justification and GlorificationThe Question: Who do YOU trust for your salvation…?It’s not as obvious as it might appear at first glance.Two key words:Justification & GlorificationNote: they are both past tense – fait accompli1. JustificationJustification is an act of God’s free grace by which He pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight. (Shorter Catechism # 33)It means “being accepted by God even though we are guilty of many sins.” (Rom. 5:16 NLT)The NCV translates this verse being made “right with God.”Have you ever felt the need to justify yourself?When we stand guilty, we all feel this need. How often do any of us say, “there is really no excuse for what I have done (or not done)”?When we stand before God all pretense will be stripped away, and deep in our hearts we know that. We know that are separated from God, we cannot see Him, because of our sin. We are alienated from Him (apart from the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit in our hearts)Romans 5:10-11 – 9Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Colossians 1:21-22 (NCV) – 21At one time you were separated from God. You were his enemies in your minds, and the evil things you did were against God. 22But now God has made you his friends again. He did this through Christ’s death in the body so that he might bring you into God’s presence as people who are holy, with no wrong, and with nothing of which God can judge you guilty.  Colossians 1:21-22 (NIV) – 21Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusationWe need to understand the ramifications of this. We were guilty, condemned, fully deserving of God’s eternal rejection and condemnation. And then God purchased a pardon for us with the blood of His own Son. Now He offers that pardon to us as a free gift. He offers any who will accept it the free gift of being made right with Him.The question: Do we WANT to be right with Him?The first benefit of being a Christian is that we can be confident that God has provided our justification. He has paid the penalty we earned and has covered us with His own righteousness. We are no longer alienated from God. We are completely JUSTIFIED in His sight… and that flows from the fact that He predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son and He called us to Himself.Crucial to understand this…Do NOT seek to justify yourself before God!Acknowledge the break. Acknowledge the guilt. Acknowledge the NEED to be justified, to be made right with God, but DO NOT strive to earn His favor…Romans 5:1 tells us that we can be fully and completely at peace with God because of this truth, because we have been made right with Him, we no longer have to fear His judgment or His rejection of us.  2. GlorificationGlorification: being made like Jesus ChristNOTE again: the past tense – Why in the past tense? – This final step in our salvation is “so certain that it is possible to refer to it as having already happened.” James Denny, one-time principal of Free Church College, Edinburgh, called this, “the most daring anticipation of faith that … the New Testament contains.… ” Denny said this because “glorified” is in the past tense. Believers are spoken of as already glorified—their glorification is that certain!This immense confidence rests on the certainty of our redemption, which began before time with God’s foreknowledge and will end beyond time with our glorification. This certainty is described in verses 29, 30 in what commentators have called “the golden chain.” Notice that the emphasis is on God doing everything: (Hughes)Our confidence is that all who begin will finish—100 percent. The same number he called will be justified. The same number he justified will be glorified. Whatever else may be said about this, one thing is clear: the entire initiative in our salvation lay with God. (Hughes)“Created wills are so very fickle, and created powers so very feeble, that, if any of these did depend upon the creature, the whole would shake. But God himself hath undertaken the doing of it from first to last, that we might abide in a constant dependence upon him and subjection to him, and ascribe all the praise to him-that every crown may be cast before the throne. This is a mighty encouragement to our faith and hope; for, as for God, his way, his work, is perfect. He that hath laid the foundation will build upon it, and the top-stone will at length be brought forth with shoutings, and it will be our eternal work to cry, Grace, grace to it.” (M. Henry) 3. It’s all about God |   | We need to understand that this is all about God. It is HIS glory that matters. It is HIS will that matters…The rest of our time this morning with a comparison between a God-centered, and a man-centered approach to all of this:In a Man-centered view God’s chief attribute is “love.” In a God-centered view God’s love is defined in the context of His justice, His holiness, His omniscience, etc. In a Man-centered view God’s “hands are tied” with respect to our decision. (Christ stands outside.  You must open the door.  God has done everything He can.)In a God-centered view God, and only God, is able to empower the sinner’s will to respond to the gospel In a Man-centered view we are fallen, yet able to choose the goodIn a God-centered view people are completely unable to choose good apart from the saving grace of God in Christ In a Man-centered view people make mistakes, they aren’t  perfect, they need forgiveness (stress is on horizontal sins)In a God-centered view is a rebel against God, needs reconciliation (stress is on vertical nature of sin) In a Man-centered view Salvation is from the consequences of sin (unhappiness & Hell)In a God-centered view Salvation is from guilt and power of sinIn a Man-centered view Emphasis on Christ’s priestly role: He’s a savior.  The primary issue is sickness which leads to death and our need for healing.  Submission to Christ’s Lordship is optional for salvation. In a God-centered view Emphasis on Christ’s Prophetic, Priestly and Kingly roles: He is Lord and Savior.  The primary issue is rebellion which leads to judgment and our need to turn to Him In a Man-centered salvation is an invitation waiting to be acceptedIn a God-centered view it is a command to be obeyed­ In a Man-centered mental assent to the truths of the Gospel In a God-centered view response of the whole man – mind, heart and will In a Man-centered appeal to the desires of the sinnerIn a God-centered view appeal to the conscience of the sinner In a Man-centered saved by “faith” alone – repentance is omitted because it is thought of as a workIn a God-centered view “faith” alone means living a life of repentance, receiving a new relationship with a new Lord and trusting Him to deal with your shortcomings and to make you acceptable before a holy and just God. In a Man-centered Assurance is based on “proof texts” and the counselor’s congratulations In a God-centered view Assurance is based on the Holy Spirit applying Scripture to the life, & heart of a believer, resulting in a changed life. Summary / Review:So what are we saying?It’s all about God.Oswald Chambers: The Gospel of the grace of God awakens an intense longing in human souls and an equally intense resentment, because the revelation which it brings is not palatable. There is a certain pride in man that will give and give, but to come and accept is another thing. I will give my life to martyrdom, I will give myself in consecration, I will do anything, but do not humiliate me to the level of the most hell-deserving sinner and tell me that all I have to do is to accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.We have to realize that we cannot earn or win anything from God; we must either receive it as a gift or do without it. The greatest blessing spiritually is the knowledge that we are destitute; until we get there Our Lord is powerless. He can do nothing for us if we think we are sufficient of ourselves; we have to enter into His Kingdom through the door of destitution. As long as we are rich, possessed of anything in the way of pride or independence, God cannot do anything for us. It is only when we get hungry spiritually that we receive the Holy Spirit. The gift of the nature of God is made effectual in us by the Holy Spirit; He imparts to us the quickening life of Jesus, which puts ‘the beyond’ within, and immediately the beyond has come within, it rises up to ‘the above,’ and we are lifted into the domain where Jesus lives.  When we see this Golden Chain as God’s work, our security comes from Him and is bound up in Who HE is and what HE has done and what HE promises to do. The alternative is to put faith in ourselves, to somehow trust that WE have done something which warrants His love and acceptance…If His foreknowledge is based upon foreseen faith in us, then when we struggle with doubt, we lose our assurance. When we feel the weight of our unworthiness, we have a really hard time believing that He really loves us.On the other hand, if we can see how His love for is bound up in Who HE is, from before the beginning of time, if we can see the fruit of that love in His calling us to Himself and in changing our hearts, we give Him all the glory and we find ourselves secure in HIS love, rather than INsecure, in our own inadequacies.We can usually agree that our justification before God is totally dependent upon Him and His grace, but if we are not seeing the whole process, from start to finish, as bound up in HIM, then we are still clinging to some vestige of SELF justification, however small it may be. And if we are doing that then we will find ourselves struggling to believe that He truly does embrace us as His own.Do you want to be secure in your relationship with God?Give Him the glory and all the credit for drawing you to Himself (or acknowledge the truth that He IS drawing You to Himself)Remind yourself daily (and more) that just as you can be confident that GOD is the One Who justified you, so also you can be confident, that HE is the One Who will, one day, complete the process of conforming you the image of His Son that He began.Do you hate the sin in your life? That is because God is conforming you to image of His Son.Do you long to see Him and to spend eternity with Him? That is because He has called you to Himself in love.Do you struggle with your inability to live up to the standards of life that you know you should? That is because God wants us to trust in HIS grace, and to persevere because HE is good, not because we are.God did not send Jesus to die for us because WE deserve it. He did it to prove His love for us… A Truth to Remember: Those who are loved by God have been loved by Him from before the beginning of time, can see the fruit of that love in a heart-felt desire to know Him and to please Him, and are confident in their eternal state because of what Christ has done for them in His death and resurrection.A Challenge to Consider: Try beginning every day this next week by reminding yourself of the truth of the gospel, that God’s acceptance of you is based in His choice of you rather than your choice of Him, and on His love for you rather than on your love for Him. One thing I heard this morning was…      |