Our Glorious Salvation

A Priceless Jewel of Unparalleled Worth

A Golden Chain of Unbreakable Strength 

Manuscript Notes

Visual Guide

Text: Romans 8:29-39

Many of us who came to Christ at a young age often face a prolonged and sometimes intense struggle to obtain and maintain an unshakeable assurance that the salvation described in Romans has become ours.

Our text this morning offers astonishing help to people like us when our hearts struggle to keep believing in the gospel we embraced when we repented of our sins, turned to Jesus, and asked God to save us.

The five truths in our text are the high point of Romans because they provide an inspired explanation of the irrevocable nature of our salvation. When properly understood and personally appropriated, they will banish all doubt from our minds, eradicate all fear from our hearts, and engender strong endurance and triumphant joy no matter what might be happening around us, to us, or even in us (our mortal bodies).

This morning, I would like us to find this kind of strength and see this kind of worth by looking at this text from three perspectives:

  • How God determined to relate to us in the past
  • What God determined to do in and for us  in the present 
  • How God determined to bring this about now and forever

 

I. How God Determined to ____________ to Us in the ____________

 

This refers to the Inexplicable Love of God (Foreknowledge)

One of the most important things Paul wants us to make sure we don’t miss is that this glorious salvation began in the heart of God (not just in His mind) when He determined to do three things for His glory.

 

  1. He determined to know certain people (those whom He describes in 8:28 as those He called according to His purpose) – to relate to them in a specific, personal way – through a covenant He made with them.
    • And the word the Holy Spirit chose to describe this relationship is “foreknowledge” (προέγνω from προγινώσκω). 
    • It occurs 5x in the NT, and three of those times it refers to the way God relates to believers through an intimate, loving relationship (Rom 8:29; 11:2; 1 Peter 1:1-2).
    • Long before I knew God, God knew me!
  2. He determined that the nature and flavor of that relationship with those people would be a loyal love born out of grace, marked by favor, sustained by mercy, and experienced through kindness, directed to goodness, and guaranteed by covenant.
    • Long before I loved God, He loved me!
  3. He determined to guarantee this relationship with these people through a covenant He made with His Son to give them to Him as brethren.
    • Long before I sought God, He sought me!

So that is the first facet of the Jewel or the first link in the golden chain that is our salvation.  

 

II. What God Determined to ____________ in and for Us in the ____________

 

 

  • This refers to the Sovereign Purposes of God – Predestined.
  • The term “predestined” (προώρισεν from προορίζω) means to set boundaries or to determine ahead of time the parameters of what will or will not happen to someone or something.

 

  1. Predetermined to conform us to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29)
  2. Predetermined us to the adoption of sons (Eph 1:5)
    he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 
  3. Predetermined to give us an inheritance with His Son (Eph 1:11)|
    In Him we have obtained (past tense) an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.

WHY:  So His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers!

So, that is what God has decided to do for and through the people He determined to foreknow.  But how will He bring this about in the lives of those people in real time and history?

 

III. How God Determined to ____________ ____________ Now and Forever

 

 

  1. He ____________ Us (ἐκάλεσεν) (1 Peter 2:(9)
    But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 

    • This refers to the gracious summons of God 
      1. It is enlightening (2 Cor 4:4-6)
      2. It is enlivening  (Ephesians 2:4-6)
      3. It is irresistible and irrevocable (Romans 11:28)
  2. He ____________ Us (ἐδικαίωσεν)
    • This refers to the saving grace of God (Romans 3:23-26)
    • Justification means three things for us:
      1. The wrath of God against us has been propitiated.
      2. The guilt of sin in us has been expiated.
      3. The just demands of God’s righteousness, as expressed by the Law (His holy representative and His righteous voice), have been fully satisfied.
    • Justification permanently removed all condemnation over us; dismissed all charges against us; and eternally imputed all of God’s righteousness to our account.
  3. He ____________ Us (ἐδόξασεν)
    • This refers to the unstoppable work of God (1 Cor 15:49)
    • Internally, this happens as the Holy Spirit applies the Word of God to our lives, shaping our character into the image of Christ and aligning our beliefs, values, and responses with Christ’s.
      2 Cor 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 
    • Externally, this will happen when the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead will one day raise and transform our physical bodies into the likeness of the glorified body Christ received upon His resurrection.
      Phil 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. 

Conclusion

How should we respond to this gospel jewel that has been given to us?

We should respond in biblically shaped ways that give us unshakeable assurance that there is no condemnation because God is for us as our mighty Defender.

We should be fully persuaded of biblically grounded truths that there will be no separation from God now or ever because God is with us as our loving Father.

And that should produce three important responses:

 

  1. We must rest in the assurance of our salvation.
    • In other words, stop doubting your salvation!!
    • How?  Reckon!!  Gather all the evidence (yours and God’s) and assess it carefully, thoughtfully, accurately, and faithfully.
  2. We should rebuke all doubt, resist all sin, and reject all fear because we are persuaded that there is neither condemnation nor separation from God.
  3. We should engage fully in God’s mission to bring many sons to glory with all our strength.

 

 

Email my notes