|
| |
What is Your Destiny?
Romans 8:29-30
Do you believe in destiny?
It seems that it is not the destiny of the Chicago Cubs to ever again win the World Series. It’s been 95 years, and strange things always seem to happen to keep the Cubs from going all the way. While most of us consciously say this with a wink—that we really don’t believe in such things—deep down inside we wonder if destiny is real. Baseball is just a sport, and way too many people take sports way too seriously. (Do you not feel for the young Cubs fan who tried to catch that foul ball in game 6? I bet he’ll end of moving! His life will be miserable in Chicago because many people in Chicago will always blame him for the Cubs failure to win the National League Championship Series! Never mind that the Cubs were up 3-1 over the Marlins and only needed to win one of the final three games; never mind that the two so-called best pitchers in baseball were shelled by the Marlins; never mind the error by the shortstop that followed that foul ball would have been a double play, stopping the Marlins rally.
Many Chicagoans this week believe in destiny. They believe that they will never experience the Cubs winning it all. Boston fans feel the same…is there really a “curse of the Bambino?”
Yankees and Marlins fans also believe in destiny. They feel that they are destined for greatness. It is they’re destiny to be world champions.
It’s just baseball!
But I submit this thought to you: When we look at how we handle the trivial matters of life, it gives us clues as to how we feel about what
really matters. So, if we feel that way about something as unimportant as baseball, how do we feel about something as important as our eternal destiny? Is this an indicator that, even for those of us who say we are
not believers, we really are believers (incognito)? Does this point to the fact that there lies somewhere under the surface a belief that there is a God and that he is moving to create for everyone their destiny? Do we have this innate belief (no matter how dormant or pushed down) that there is more to life than who we are today and that our destiny should be grand and marvelous and, dare I say, glorious?
I think we do. We feel the yearning for more. We have hope for more. We know that we can achieve more, be more, have more of an impact in our world. We really believe this, unless we believe lies and have succumbed to despair about our destiny (like this week’s Cubs fans), we always seek to lift our head up, and try to envision a grander, more glorious destiny for ourselves, and for our kids and loved ones.
Last week (in our continuing series on Romans 8), we were told that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”
(v. 28).
Now we are told why all things work together for our good. We are told what that good is that God is working to create. We are told what that “purpose” is that we have been called to have. Verse 28 is so amazing, so unbelievable, that the next two verses explain it so that we can be persuaded.
Biblical Christianity has the power to create personal greatness in each and every one of us. Biblical Christianity is not interested in making narrow-minded, hateful, spiteful, mean-spirited people.
Biblical Christianity is a renewing force that utterly transforms the person who submits to it.
These verses we are about to study are very often discussed in the abstract, in theological discussions between the Arminians and the Calvinists (and everyone in between). But that was not why these verses are in our Bibles. Think about it…It’s the first Century; Paul is writing to the Roman Christians, who need to be emboldened in their faith as they openly live it out in hostile situations. They will have to walk into arenas and face lions! Will their faith in the God who is at work in all things for the good of those who love him and have been called according to his purpose outweigh the feeling of lions’ fangs tearing away their flesh?
Yes. They had that kind of faith! Biblical Christianity is a transforming power and it will always be. It is one thing to sit over coffee and discuss theology in the abstract; it is another thing to let these two verses speak for themselves and allow their power to change the way you handle all the difficulties in your life. God wants you to know that your destiny is in his hands, and his purpose for you is to make you all that you were created to be! He will see you all the way through to becoming glorious! You will not just be
better, you will be great!
Because, according to this verse, if you are a Christian, God has determined to work out his divine plan for your good. And that plan cannot fail. You have a destiny, and it is glorious!
The Unbroken Chain
In describing this plan, these verses are marked by five great verbs—foreknew, predestined, called, justified,
and glorified—five verbs that are an unbroken chain of purpose for your benefit from the very hand of God.
1. God Foreknew You
The fist verb is “foreknew.” The Greek word is combination-word,
proginosko. Ginosko means “know;” and with the “pro” in front of it, it means that God knew beforehand—God “foreknew.” The first chapter of Ephesians tells us that this “beforehand” was
“before the creation of the world.” (Eph. 1:4) So, this knowledge was there before this world even came into being—way before your even being born!
Remember grammar in high school? Every verb has a subject and an object—that is basic to any sentence, right? Look at the verse—what is the subject? Who foreknew? Answer: God. Okay, that’s easy.
Now look at the verse again. What is the object? God foreknew what? Answer: A certain group of people.
“For those God foreknew…” This is where many of us get confused about this whole “foreknowledge” thing. Some attempt to define God’s foreknowledge as his looking down the corridors of time and seeing what people would do—that is, whether or not they would choose to follow him and become his children. Based on that foreknowledge of what people will do, God then begins to determine their destiny.
But that is not what the sentence is saying. It is simple—“For those God foreknew…”
There are a certain group of people that God knew beforehand. This word, “knew,” must mean more than basic knowledge
about people or what they will do. It must be deeper, for God knows what
all people will do. This “knowledge” is reserved for a certain subset of people.
The Old Testament shines light on our understanding here. When the Bible speaks of God knowing people and even of people knowing each other, there is often a deeper meaning associated with it.
We first saw it in Genesis. “Adam ‘knew’ Eve.” Grrrrrooowl! We know what that means! The marriage bed is the deepest level of “knowledge” that human beings can experience. It is the most intimate knowledge, it is the deepest level of
relationship. In essence, to “know” means to “love.”
Then, as the Old Testament unfolds, we read that God “knows” a certain group of
people—the Israelites. They are God’s people; they have an intimate relationship with God that no other people experience. God, out of his love, “chose” them to be in a special, intimate relationship with him. They did not deserve it. They were no more special than any other people-group on the earth. In fact, they were just as sinful as every other nation. But, in his grace, in his love, God chose a certain group of people to love. He wanted their relationship with him to have an impact on every other people-group. They were given the mandate to show how being loved by God can impact lives, as a witness to God’s love to the world. The rest of the world would then be able to enter that love relationship through that one people-group, the Israelites. God “loved” them, God “knew” them in the same way, yet even deeper (imagine that!), that Adam and Eve knew each other!
So, in the Bible, to “know” often moves beyond just intellectual cognition; it means personal intimate relationship, it means care and affection; it can be equated with “love.” So, here is the amazing thing taught in Romans 8:29—it teaches that God “knew” a certain group of people before they knew him—Christians! God loved us before we loved him. And this special relationship is no longer bound by ethnic of racial or geographic lines—it is open to everyone (see Galatians 3:28-29).
But here is the point: God initiated my relationship with him! God made the first move! My place in God’s love was secured not by what
I did but what God did in his own unique ability to love sin-infested, God-hating, self-absorbed jerks like me. This is why I am always dumbfounded that I am a Christian! I arrive here at Vanguard Church each Sunday and say, “What am
I doing here? Why does God love me?”
That is grace, that is mercy. That is foreknowledge.
He owes me nothing! He does not need me! Do you know what I deserve for my selfishness and hatefulness and pride and greed? Hell! That’s what I deserve! Yet, God says, “Okay, you—Bob. I choose
you, not because of anything you’ve done to deserve my love (as if you could). Not because of anything you have that will make me more complete (as if that were possible). Not because you’re more worthy than the next guy (because you’re not). I choose you to love, because of my grace.
If you are a Christian today, you may feel as if you made the initial decision to choose to love God. But the truth is this: God loved you first, for if he hadn’t, you would never been able to love him back.
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
(1 John 4:10)
Because God foreknows us, because he loves us so much, he sets our destiny for us.
2. God Predestined You
This is the centerpiece of what this passage is all about. God has determined your destiny—what you will ultimately be.
“For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29)
The Greek word has that “pro” in front of it again—“pre-destined. The Bible is teaching that God foreknew a certain group of people, and for those people, he determined their destiny
beforehand, before he even created the world.
The promise is this: God has determined to take someone who has more in common with Adam and make him or her into someone who has more in common with Jesus Christ! Adam was the first sinner, and every one of us are infected with that same disease—no matter how much we try to rise above it, we are often greedy, lustful, prideful, selfish, arrogant. God has determined to take us as we are and transform us into what we were meant to be! As Paul puts it in his first letter to the Corinthians,
“Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven. Every human being has an earthly body just like Adam’s, but our heavenly bodies will be just like Christ’s. Just as we are now like Adam, the man of the earth, so we will someday be like Christ, the man from heaven.”
(1 Corinthians 15:47-49)
God has pre-determined the destiny of the ones he foreknew: We will be in heaven. And since we will be in heaven, we will need to have heavenly bodies—bodies rid of sin, bodies made like that of Jesus Christ. God will transform our Adam-like bodies into glorious, heaven-ready bodies.
God not only saw us struggling along in our earthly existence—in our sometimes blatant and sometimes subtle disregard for him, in our sometimes blatant and sometimes subtle misery, in our sometimes blatant and sometimes subtle self-injury—and he chose to love us. He said, “I will not leave them as they are. I will put my honor upon them. I will bring them to glory. I will take that which once had my perfect image and conform them into the image my Son.”
You have a destiny! A pre-destiny! For God decided what you would be even before you were born!
Now, predestination must not promote arrogance in the People of God! Some, indeed, boast about their favored status as Christians. But the biblical teaching of predestination excludes arrogance! For it fills us with astonishment that God would ever have had mercy on such undeserving sinners as us! Predestination is humbling! We must not strut around as if we were something special, for there is nothing in us that is special! The reason God chose Abraham in the Old Testament and his descendents (the Israelites) was not to bless them only, but to use them as a blessing for all the families of the earth (Gen. 12). Now, as New Testament Christians, we are told we are the spiritual descendents of Abraham—a people in intimate relationship with God in order to show the world the love of God, so that they too can be in the same relationship! Peter proclaims to us,
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
(1 Peter 2:9)
Most of the world is in darkness, even today. But the followers of Christ are called to do something about it! So, predestination does not promote apathy, either. The Bible never paints a picture that shows that God is so sovereign that we don’t have to do anything. On the contrary, God honors us by determining that his will would be carried out as we take part in his plan to call people into this relationship with himself!
That brings us to the next great verb in these verses:
3. God Called You
“And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
(Romans 8:30)
There is no “pre” or “fore” in front of this verb—“those he predestined, he also
called.” That is because we actually experience this in our life. There comes a point where you find yourself inescapably drawn to God. No matter how much running away from God you’ve done, no matter how much you tried to shut your ears to God, you cannot stop from hearing his call.
He woos you into this love-relationship with him. He wins you, not with flowers and candies on Sweetest Day, but with a superlative love, an incomprehensible forgiveness, and an invitation to enter into an adventurous romance that will bring purpose and meaning to this life and the next.
And he often does this through his people! Evangelism gets a bad rap—it is seen as some Bible-thumping hellfire preacher yelling at you about your destiny in Hell.
Evangelism really is somebody already in this love-relationship with God gently and lovingly helping you along so that you can have a destiny in Heaven.
God calls people, very often, through the witness of his people. We need to show the love of God in our lives in authentic ways. Peter admonishes us,
“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”
(1 Peter 3:15)
4. God Justified You
“…those he called, he also justified…”
The reason that God justifies those he calls is because those he loves are sinners. The people that God has predetermined to love for all eternity have wrecked their relationship with him. But God refuses to accept their failure as the last word. Instead, he states the last word: “I will pay the price it takes to bring them back into relationship with me.”
Justification is God paying the price for our sins, so that we can be seen as righteous in his sight. When God looks at those who have placed their trust in Jesus Christ, he sees his righteousness and not our sin.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” (Ephesians 1:3-4)
Whoa! God’s love is amazing! For he chose me before the creation of the world—someone who is absolutely unholy, someone who is absolutely full of blame for all the terrible things I do and think and feel—he chose me to be holy and blameless in his sight! He justified me! That’s a lot of love! Even though there is very little to love about me, God chose to love me anyway.
5. God Glorified You
“…those he justified, he also glorified.”
Here is the final link in the unbreakable chain of God’s plan. There will come a point in the future when we will be glorified—we will be made like Christ, so that we can live with Christ for all eternity.
No more frustration, no more haunting memories of things gone wrong, no more shame, no more remorse. No more fear of discipline or exposure.
Why? Because NO MORE SIN!
As Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., wrote, “Our final redemption is called ‘glorification’, because sin is not just bad; it is humiliating. Jesus did not die just to make us good; he died to make us great and glorious and conformed to the image of God’s Son.”
(Supernatural Living for Natural People)
Our final destiny is glory!
And, from God’s standpoint, it is absolutely certain—the final link in the unbreakable chain of his plan. That is why, even though it is in our future, it is rendered in the same verb tense as the other verbs in the chain!
Now, having this expanded vision of our destiny, we can live more fully in the here and now! We can know that in all things God is working for the good of those who love him and are called according to this grand purpose! Our time on this earth is now seen as a brief pilgrimage, a time in which even the hard times are being worked by God for that ultimate, good purpose for us—our
destiny! We are now able to trust in him and follow him no matter what happens to us in this brief time here on earth.
No more hesitation, no more uncertainty, no more small dreams, no more undersized visions. No more living as if all that mattered is today. No more living as if all that mattered is my infinitesimal joys and comforts.
We see the big picture! We see our destiny! And we see our part in the destiny of others!
back
to top
back
to the Romans 8 Series |
