The Assurance of the Eternal Purpose of God
"Moreover we know that to those who love God, who are called according to His plan, everything that happens fits into a pattern for good. For God, in His foreknowledge, chose them to bear the family likeness of His Son, that He might be the eldest of a family of many brothers. He chose them long ago; when the time came He called them, He made them righteous in His sight, and then lifted them to the splendour of life as His own sons." What a glorious assurance! This working, then, of all things for good is done quite naturally to "those who love God", because such souls, persuaded that He who gave His own Son for them cannot but mean them well in all His procedure, even in the midst of the distress of this world. We hold, in Christ, an impregnable position, where present distress is temporary and negligible.
Having told us that we have eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, the apostle raises a natural question. If this is so, if a believer is eternally secure, does that mean he can do as he likes, get away with sin, live to please himself? Paul responds with a resounding: "God forbid!". Perish the thought! The principle of victorious Christian living is that the old nature in the believer has been put to death by God in the death of Christ. We are to know, reckon and yield, counting actively on the truth of God's assurance that "the old man", the man we used to be, is now "crucified with Him." We learn that it is possible to know the secret of victory and yet not experience it practically. Romans 7 speaks about the spiritual man, the natural man and the carnal man. In this chapter, all the failure stems from a reliance on self-effort as a means of producing the kind of life God expects. Paul mentions himself forty-five times in the discussion. No wonder he reaches the end of the chapter with a wail of despair!
Reflections
The practice of victorious Christian living is that we are never left alone to work out our problems. The indwelling power of the Holy Spirit is at work within us to direct the events of our lives. Glorification is the future aspect of the divine gift of salvation to us. Paul views man's glorification as already accomplished because it is part of His unchanging decree, even though it is still future in time from man's perspective. This was why Paul could confidently assert: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose." Paul saw himself and all believers as constant objects of God's will.
Peoples Church of Montreal
2097 Union Avenue -
Montreal, Quebec H3A 2C3 - Canada