Things Working Together According to His Purpose
Romans 8:28-31, Ephesians 1,2
Some things get accomplished in a shorter time than others. We have been working on Romans 8 for a few weeks, but God has been working on me a lot longer! As a matter of fact, He started far before I did! I found a book this week containing the EDITED sermon transcripts on the 16 chapters of Romans and it was 520 pages long, so we are really getting the abridged version in our study.
Remember Romans 8:1-2: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” We have seen how God’s Spirit is alive and working in the hearts of believers and we have been focusing on Romans 8:28 : “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are CALLED according to His purpose.”
God CALLS people through the Gospel message, the Good News of Jesus Christ: Everyone ever born is a sinner because of Adam’s sin in the beginning. Sin means death. Jesus, God in the flesh, came to shed His blood as payment for sin. Anyone who truly believes in Him will be saved.
The EVIDENCE of true faith in you is that you LOVE God. Loving God means loving what he loves. Loving what God loves. And what does he love? He loves his people. He loves his word. He loves righteousness. Me. He loves fellowshipping with those who love Him. I do, too. He loves goodness. He loves kindness. He loves helping those who DON’T love Him The Evidence that God’s Spirit has come to dwell in you and that His GOSPEL call has had an EXTREME EFFECT on you and on your life, is that YOU LOVE God. You have been called BY God to LOVE God, and this is “according to His PURPOSE.”
2 Tim. 1:9 uses the same word: “(Jesus), who has saved us and called us to a holy life--not because of anything we have done but because of his own PURPOSE and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.”
What is God’s “Purpose”? If YOU set out to do something, you begin with an INTENTION. You establish your intention before time: For example, when I set out for church this morning, my purpose was to worship the Almighty Sovereign Gracious God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, who is also my Savior from my sin and sinful self through the Lord Jesus, and to worship in the company of others who profess the same. My Sunday intention actually coincides with my EVERYDAY purpose: To bring Glory and worship to God. The fact is, I do neither perfectly: every day, including Sunday morning, I fail at my “intentions”, and I KNOW THAT I FAIL. PRAISE God that I am not saved by my good intentions, because I would still be dead to myself and dead to God. But I am SAVED BY GRACE, not by my intentions.
God’s Purpose is a part of God’s CHARACTER as well as His intentions, but His “intentions” also include HOW he executes His decision. He does so PERFECTLY. In our lives, “Intentions” seldom turn out well, but God’s intentions are ALWAYS ACCOMPLISHED.
When God plans something, IT IS guaranteed to be completed perfectly. For us, “PERFECTLY” is just a word in our vocabulary, but in God’s realm, “PERFECTLY” IS HIS REALITY; His Perfect Purpose is why He is uniquely God. God never plans, promises or proclaims anything which does not materialize. His PURPOSE and intentions include determining the outcome, and doing that PERFECTLY.
He never proclaims anything that He can’t produce or bring to pass because His ATTRIBUTE OF PURPOSE is entirely Holy, good, wise, truthful, righteous, Omnipotent and Sovereign. That’s why nothing will prevail against HIM!
Ephesians 1:11 puts it this way: “We have obtained an inheritance, (We didn’t die for the inheritance, but Jesus did.) having been predestined according to HIS PURPOSE who works all things after (or according to) the counsel of His WILL.” God’s Will is part of His Divine Purpose (prothesis).
Acts 2:23 proclaims Christ in these terms: “This Man, delivered over by the predetermined (Horizo- we get the word “horizon”; God put HIS plan on the horizon.) plan (the counsel of God’s Will) and foreknowledge (the Greek word means PRE-ARRANGED event) of God, (it was not an accident that Jesus was handed over to be crucified- it was the will of God ) you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. 24 "But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”
Peter describes God’s predetermined ability and will this way Acts 4:28 “to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined (DECIDED beforehand) to occur.” This Will of God is called God’s Sovereign decretive Will: This is so UNLIKE human nature. Whatever God DECREES, He DOES, because He has decided to DO it. God does not ordain or determine SOME things to happen and has no part in other things. He ordains all things.
God ordains EVERTHING that comes to pass and he ALWAYS has the right and power to intervene, but does not always choose to intervene. Many times that Will of God is hidden from us until after the things happen. For the happenings in the believer’s life that don’t “make sense”, we can still TRUST that it all makes PERFECT sense to our God, since He not only knows the facts beforehand, but knows His PEOPLE, and He determines the outcome, but that in no way leaves us without responsibility. (We’ll look at that in a moment.)
“Thel-e-ma” is another powerful Greek word pertaining to the WILL of God: It means “what one wishes (intent) and has DETERMINED shall be done.” John 6:37: "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, (all whom the Father effectively calls, will come to Jesus) and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39" This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. (He will raise up all that the father gives me) 40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day." God’s Will and Purpose includes saving AND sanctifying the called through Jesus Christ: Here we see that the will of the Father and the Son are in perfect agreement.
The same word is used in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:10: “YOUR kingdom come. YOUR will be done.” God is building His Kingdom and it will absolutely be done! He is accomplishing His will in the WORLD and in us. What a powerful privilege for us to pray: “Do whatever it takes Lord, to accomplish YOUR WILL and PURPOSE on this earth, to save those you have called, and DO whatever it takes, LORD, to SANCTIFY me. Align my will with yours.”
So often, Christians pray for God to reveal His Will to us, as if we are clueless, and helpless to perceive what God’s Will is. God’s Preceptive WILL for us is very visible and plain. His commands are abundant. We have been studying how Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, EXPANDS the extent of God’s Law. Jesus commands that we deny ourselves and follow Him. He commands that we repent and be baptized, to be a light and witness to the lost, to obey Him, to feed the hungry, free the persecuted, tithe our incomes or MORE, support, serve and encourage each other in prayer and fellowship, to grow as a body in Christ by exercising our gifts, to not neglect worshiping together, to exercise our gifts: PHEW! I don’t know if I can handle knowing any more of God’s Will. MUCH OF God’s WILL is very plain to us and we have PLENTY of FREEDOM in our choices, but so often we choose NOT to do the will of God, and pray, “Show me your will”. We should be praying that God empower us to DO HIS WILL. Don’t you agree?
That word “Thel-e-ma” is also in Galatians 1:4: “(Jesus) gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the WILL of our God and Father.” (This is what God has determined to be done, and is doing in those whom He has called.)
We have been looking at all the individual pieces of this verse as if we are focusing on each of the individual pieces of a stained glass window. Some are darker and some lighter. We understand some of them clearly, and some not as clearly. Now I want you to look at verses 28-31 altogether. Look at the whole window as the “Sun” (or “Son”) shines through that window of God’s salvation, and see the way that God’s Purpose is fitting together ALL the pieces of His SALVATION plan for us in CHRIST on our spiritual journey.
28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 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 ; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called ; and these whom He called, He also justified ; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If GOD IS FOR US, who is against us?
Verses 29-30 are often referred to as the steps of God’s work of salvation in the life of believers. Verse 28 tells us that GOD USES every event in the life of a sinner who has been saved and called according to HIS purpose. Verses 29-30 tell us HOW God has affected that change according to HIS Purpose.
Sometimes we just have to sit and look at the entire finished stained glass window of God’s salvation for us and marvel at the “just about finished” piece of work: He knew me before hand, (FOR WHOM)not only what choices I would make. He declared me to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that Jesus would be honored. He called me effectively by His Spirit, because my Spirit was dead. He justified me, forgave me on account of Jesus’ blood sacrifice, and He is STILL conforming me to the image of Jesus. We didn’t put any of the pieces together. We have to remember where we once WERE, what we are BECOMING in Christ, and what we will be… and be humble and thankful before Him
Ephesians 2:1-2 explains that clearly: And YOU? “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”
We were once DEAD in our sins. There was no light shining through our lives at all. We didn’t even know that there WAS light because a dead man can’t see anything. A dead man doesn’t have the will to do anything at all, because he is dead. And he certainly doesn’t have the ability to put any pieces together, because he doesn’t even know there ARE pieces.
Ephesians 2:4 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come HE might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” It is because of His GREAT LOVE that HE has made you ALIVE in Christ NOW, and you can KNOW that all things are working together for HIS GREATER purpose FOREVER.
“If God is for us, who could be against us?”
OUTLINE:
Introduction: The EVIDENCE that God’s GOSPEL call has had an EXTREME EFFECT on you and on your life is that YOU LOVE God and YOU LOVE the things that God loves.
God’s “Purpose”
1.God’s Purpose is His CHARACTER and INTENTIONS.
2. God’s Purpose includes determining the outcome. …PERFECTLY.
3. God’s Will is part of His Divine Purpose.
4. God’s Sovereign DECRETIVE Will:
Whatever God DECREES, He DOES, because He has decided to DO it.
5. God’s Purpose is fitting together all the pieces of His SALVATION plan for us.
