2) PREDESTINATION:
"For whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." Romans 8v29
Here we are, taken outside the bounds of time, into eternity to hear the pre-creation counsels of God. The place where on we tread now is holy ground. We are privy to the amazing plans of God prepared before time began and made known through the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 25v34 "The kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
John 17v24 "You loved Me before the foundation of the world." This is in connection with all believers who would accept Christ as their Saviour. It was all known before the world began.
Romans 16v25 "The preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest."
Revelation 13v8 "The book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."
2nd Timothy 1v9 "Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."
Titus 1v2 "In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began."
It was all known before the world began, and what was known, God secured by an act of predestination. It could be said that , what OMNISCIENCE knew, OMNIPOTENCE secured. I am indebted to the late Jim Anderson of Annbank, Ayrshire who put it like this "in election and predestination God secured for Himself a people when otherwise there would be none." God does not deal in possibilities, only in certainties; using an infinite, perfect knowledge He acted to predestine a people for His glory. The word predestine is pro-orizo which means to declare beforehand the ultimate end, the horizon, the destination of those so predestined. This destination, this horizon is not merely seen as escape from hell, but is much more glorious than that, it is to be conformed to the image of His Son. Everywhere we read of predestination in connection with God's people it has to so with sonship. Ephesians 1v5 Predestined to the adoption of sons; Ephesians 1v11 Predestined to share an inheritance; here in Romans 8v29 Predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. The last mentioned "conformed to the image of His Son" suggests the idea of a moulding process in which God is going to form us in accordance with His Son Jesus Christ. The word is summorphus which is a moulding together; the same expression occurs in Philippians 3v21 "fashioned like unto His glorious body." The truth of the matter is that we shall be modelled on Christ, God's Son, body, soul and spirit for all eternity and in this way God will populate heaven with people just like Him. What a glorious plan!
Paul does not stop there; he says why God has done this. "That He might be the firstborn of many brethren." Sometimes in our thinking of salvation we can get a little bit selfish and the Holy Spirit here is directing us to the ultimate object of our salvation and predestination and it is this; that God's Son may be eternally glorified with many brethren beside Him and like Him. Notice the word many; there is no indication of how many; we know there will be those from every tribe and family and kindred and tongue and nation; but the point is among them Christ will be the firstborn; not in the sense of born first but in the sense of highest in rank. This is what predestination is all about; God planned that His Son would have many companions in whom He would be glorified and nothing in the course of history will prevent it.
THIS IS GOD IN ACTION: unlike what sceptics are saying, that the world is going round in circles, on the contrary the world is progressing on a linear pathway towards a predestined glorious goal which God secured before time began.
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