Five Golden Links in Salvation
God is at work in all the many detailed circumstances of our
lives to accomplish His eternal purpose.
How much does God love us? Just let me count the many ways. Here are
five to begin our quest. “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).
That is what God does for us out of His infinite love and grace. God
foreknew. God predestined. God called. God justified. God glorified. God saves!
How does God cause all things to work together for the good of those
who love Him and are called according to His purpose? The chain of divine action
demonstrates how He accomplishes this “good.” What is this good purpose of God?
God is saving a body of people who will be made like Jesus Christ.
He is not making us like gods as the cults purpose. We will not
become divine and go off and populate a planet. That nonsense is strange to the Bible.
God’s eternal purpose of redemption is that He will have a
people who are loving, full of joy, peace, holiness, wisdom, patience, kindness, goodness,
compassion, faithfulness, mercy, grace, etc.
God selects, predestinates, calls, justifies, and glorifies a people
who will be like His Son.
The apostle Paul tells us how God does it. He “foreknew” us
unto salvation. The Lord never foreordains anyone to be lost in the Scriptures. Those who
are saved through faith in Jesus Christ were known ahead of time and chosen unto God (Hos.
13:5; Amos 3:2; Matt. 7:23; Jn. 10:14; Rom. 11:2; 1 Cor. 8:3; Gal. 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:19). It
is a divine knowledge. The salvation of every believer is known and determined in the mind
of God before its actual accomplishment in time and place.
God foreknows people, and He has a purpose in saving certain people.
This is the first link in the chain.
Robert Haldane said, “God foreknows what will be, by determining
what shall be.” God knows all things because He is omniscient. God “sets His
special love upon” a person or “elects” a person to salvation.
How much does God love us? From this passage of Scripture we can
declare so much that He has elected us to salvation and will keep us in that salvation.
God set His love and saving grace upon a select group of people to be like His Son Jesus
Christ.
The longer I am a Christian the more I realize that
my salvation is all of God, and not of man. Even my faith is of God, and
the result of His working in us. He creates in us the faith that He
demands (Jn. 3:3-8; 6:44, 45, 65; Eph. 2:8; Phil. 1:29; 2 Pet. 1:2).
Faith, regeneration, repentance are all intimately related to our
salvation experience.
Since God is the author of my salvation it is
accomplished with infinite wisdom.
Robert Haldane says in salvation “man acts no part, but is
passive, and all is done by God. He is elected and predestined and called and justified
and glorified by God. . . . Could anything be more consolatory to those who love God, than
to be in this manner assured that the great concern of their salvation is not left in
their own keeping? . . . God has taken the whole upon Himself. He has undertaken for them.
There is no room, then, for chance or change. He will perfect that which concerns
them.”
Paul, therefore, gives us great assurance of God’s eternal
purpose in our lives in spite of our present suffering.
God has foreseen everything that will take place in
relation to our salvation.
Salvation has its origin in the eternal counsels of God. God elects a
chosen people to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. Are you one of those chosen of
God?
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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