Eternity Daily Bible Study: No. 543 Romans 1-8 - A Righteousness That Is By Faith Verses: Romans 8:29-30 Topic: God's Wonderful Grand Plan Date: 17th November 2005 Romans 8:29-30 HCSB For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. (30) And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified. God's plan for you and I is for us to be "conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers." What an astonishing, wonderful, mind-boggling and utterly glorious privilege! God wants us to be the younger brothers of Jesus Christ and to have a nature like His! In fact we are to be in His very image! As the apostle John says so well: 1 John 3:1-3 HCSB Look at how great a love the Father has given us, that we should be called God's children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn't know Him. (2) Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is. (3) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. God has a plan! And what a plan! We will be creatures of great glory, immortal, loving, holy, imperishable as the angels, death-less, eternal and spiritual, radiant with the grandeur of Heaven and known as the children of God! Oh wonder of wonders Jesus will not be ashamed to call us "brother" and to own us as part of His heavenly family! Hebrews 2:11-13 HCSB For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers, (12) saying: I will proclaim Your name to My brothers; I will sing hymns to You in the congregation. (13) Again, I will trust in Him. And again, Here I am with the children God gave Me. Now how does this come about? Paul gives us the stages, the big steps with seven-league boots, the grand strides of the process of redemption: Those He foreknew -> He predestined -> He called -> He justified -> He glorified Now the word for foreknew is "prognosis" from which we get "prognosis" as a medical term - knowing how things will turn out with a soul. Indeed this term is only used 5 times in Scripture. Twice it refers to God's planning for the cross and knowing how redemption would turn out, even before the foundation of the world (Acts 2:23, 1 Peter 1:20). Once it refers to God's long-term plans for the redemption of Israel (Romans 11:2) which means He has not cast them off. And twice (Romans 8:29, 1 Peter 1:2) it refers to God's certain plans for the redemption of the saints. God's foreknowledge, His prognosis, is like the Divine Physician looking at a fallen world and saying what it needs and how He will bring about its healing with the Blood of the Lamb! The word predestined simply means "sketched out a plan for" like an architect building a house. From this it means to "decide beforehand" just as an architect decides beforehand what shape a house will take and what will be used in the construction. God's predestination is God's "project planning" and the project is our redemption! So God beholds the need for redemption, makes a prognosis, then comes up with a plan, a "predestined" sketched-out beforehand strategy for fixing it. "And those He predestined, He also called". As a result of God's plan for our redemption He calls us to Himself and to faith in Christ. The first thing that God fixes is the relationship. Everything else is secondary. Like the prodigal son, the relationship is fixed first, then everything else follows in time. Our redemption is a series of loving acts that follows the restoration of relationship. The Greek word for "called" mainly means to "call aloud" but can also mean "to give a name or title to". Just as Jesus renamed Simon to Peter. This calling is to a new identity, we become a new person in Christ with a "new name". God calls us into being as new creations. Romans 4:17 HCSB ....He believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. Calling also refers to the event we call conversion so that early Christians could say "when I was called" and name a day and hour when God saved them! 1 Corinthians 7:17 HCSB (17) However, each one must live his life in the situation the Lord assigned when God called him. This is what I command in all the churches. 2 Timothy 1:9 HCSB who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. This calling is faithful and irrevocable (Romans 11:28,29, 1 Corinthians 1:9) and involves a "higher calling" to glorious spiritual realities. Ephesians 1:18-19 HCSB I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, (19) and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of His vast strength. Now to enter in these glories we must be able to stand before the Throne of Heaven and God has taken care of this: "and those He called, He also justified". God's stamp of approval is placed upon us and we are made "just-as-if-I'd-never-sinned". We are made OK, and all our un-OK-ness is forgiven and redeemed. Then we are given angel's wings, and made citizens of Heaven to reign with Christ for evermore - and those He justified, He also glorified. We are raised up and sit with Christ in heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6) and given the power to become sons of God (John 1:12) and brought into divine fellowship with God and with Christ (1 Corinthians 1:9, 1 John 1:1-3). We do not just "go to glory", we ourselves are made to be glorious with the glory Christ had (John 17:22)! We will be clothed with immortality and light because of what God has done for us! (see 1 Corinthians 15) Praise be to God for His wonderful plan! Blessings, John Edmiston (johned@aibi.ph) REFER OTHERS: If this devotional is a blessing to you, maybe you have a friend or family member that would like to start receiving this daily bible study. You can forward this to them, and they can use the following link to subscribe. http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ or they can just send a blank email to: eternity-dbs-subscribe@strategicnetwork.org BLOG: If you missed a day or would like to read the bible studies online you can catch up using the new Eternity Daily Bible Study Blog at: http://aibi.gospelcom.net/eternity/wordpress/ EBOOKS & ARCHIVES : http://www.aibi.ph/eternity/ - includes free ebooks containing each series of Eternity-DBS bible studies. 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