Romans 8:29-30 Theme: Our Salvation is Secure

All right. Good morning, everybody.

Good morning.

Romans 8:29-30 and the Light of Christ’s Glory and Grace

Our text this morning comes from Romans 8. Please turn your Bibles there. We'll be considering verses 29 and 30. Romans 8, 29 through 30. Before we begin to dive into this passage, I'd like to give a preface.

This morning, we want to behold the light of Christ's glory and grace. Beholding the light of Christ's glory and grace. You see, it points our eyes to the fountain from which everything we need in this life, where it comes from, is Christ himself.

He is the wellspring from which every goodness flows from. He is every blessing that we could possibly receive. Every comfort in our trials, every spiritual change that you desire to see, is in beholding the light of his glory and grace.

All of it has its origin in him. We live in a world that constantly just pulls our eyes downward from beholding him. It's not just the obvious distractions like the cares of this world that capture our attention.

It's also the deeper, more subtle weights that we carry. The doubts that creep into our assurance. The fears that whisper questions about the security of our salvation. The condemnation of guilt that our flesh accuses us so often.

These two are worldly things. Worldly things that I desire to see grow strangely dim in my heart, but also yours as well. When we focus our eyes upon Jesus, we're declaring a profound truth. That the light of his glory and grace is not just brighter, but also transformative.

It has the power to make the things of the earth grow strangely dim. Not because they disappear, but because his radiance outshines them all. And so as we prepare to hear the word, let us fix our eyes on him.

Seeing Christ in and through the gospel is the very thing that counteracts the doubts, the fears and distractions that plague all of us in our flesh. So when we behold Christ, we see not only his beauty, but also the assurance that he is able to truly save us and transform us and carry us to the end.

And so let this be our prayer and focus today. May our focus be upon Jesus and may everything else fade into its rightful place, eclipsed by his glory. So with that in mind, let's read our text, Romans 8, verses 29 and 30.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he called. And those whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Let's pray. Lord, help me this morning. Help us this morning. Many obstacles are present at this very moment within us. And outside of us. We ask for your help, Lord.

I ask for the believers in this room right now, the divine help of your Holy Spirit to cause their eyes to be fixed on Christ. And for those that don't know you, that you would be working to convict them of sin and open their eyes to the gospel.

Lord, there's true glory and beauty to be seen. So we ask for your help as we truly need it. In Jesus name. Amen. So there's a question I want to ask you. And I hope that this is a question that you keep asking yourself throughout the sermon.

How secure is your salvation? How secure is it? And how sure is your salvation? We all may say, yeah, really secure. How you answer that question bears massive significance in your life. You see, there's a direct correlation between the security of your salvation and your joy.

There is a direct correlation between the security of your salvation and your peace. And if we desire to have joy and peace, we have to ask ourselves, how secure is our salvation? If your salvation is uncertain, if it depends on your efforts, your ability to hold on to God.

And your perseverance, then every failure, every stumble, every moment of weakness can just plunge you into utter despair. But if your salvation rests entirely on the unchanging character and promises of God, then you can face trials, temptations, and even your own deepest failures with assurance and peace.

So by way of illustration, let's picture this. A father and his young child are on a journey through the wilderness. The trail has been rocky and steep, but the father's strength and guidance have carried them through every challenge.

As they press on, they come to a rushing river. And the water is cold and wild as it crashes over the jagged rocks. The current of this river is so strong that it's uprooting large trees along the embankment.

The child sees all of this and is struck with fear. How are we going to get across? The child asks with a trembling voice. The father kneels down and says, don't worry, my little one, I will carry you.

The father then lifts the child into his arms and steps into the river. The icy water rushes around his legs and the child instinctively wraps their arms around the father's neck. At first, the child holds on as tightly as they can, every muscle tensed with fear.

But as they cross deeper into the river, something begins to change. The child feels the steady strength of the father's arms. The surety of his steps as he presses forward against this current that seemed impossible to get through.

The father's grip is firm and unyielding, and his voice is calm and steady as he reassures the child, don't be afraid. I've got you. The child starts to loosen their grip little by little until they no longer clutch their father in a panic desperation, but begin to rest.

The sense of dread is replaced with a sense of peace as the child is held safe and secure as they reach the other side of the river. Now, think about this. The child's safety didn't depend on how tightly they held on to the father, right?

It wasn't the strength of the child that got them across the river. Regardless of how tightly the child thought they were holding on to the father, it was the strength of the father and him holding his child that got them to the end.

It was the father's strength, his grip, his determination to carry the child safely to the other side. You see, we often feel like that child clinging on to God with trembling hands. But our security doesn't depend on the strength of our hold on God, but on the strength of his hold on us.

Let me tell you, his grip is unbreakable. When you rest in that truth, when you know that your salvation is secured, not by our efforts, but by his finished work, you can have true peace and security.

And with that in mind, that is what brings us to what our text is known as the golden chain of salvation. Paul presents five acts of God in these verses as links to form a seamless chain from eternity past to eternity future.

And so with that, these five points we will look at are number one, foreknowledge. Number two, predestination. Number three, calling. Number four, justification. And number five, glorification. Each link, foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification, they all represent a mighty act of God binding together his eternal purposes and our eternal security.

These verses assure us that salvation is all of God and all of grace. And so when looking at a text like this in Romans 8, there can be a temptation to just reduce it to a theological, scholastic endeavor.

And while sound doctrine is indeed vital, I'm not interested in us being good theologians on paper. I want us to know the reality of good theology, theology that permeates the heart. You see, the true test of our theology isn't in the lecture hall or pages of books or some quiz that you might take online.

It comes when our weaknesses threaten to overwhelm us. The sovereignty of God and your eternal security can seem to be easy doctrines to confess when it's purely conceptual. But when our guilt whispers that you've gone just too far, when shame looms like a shadow, or when trials come and despair grips your soul, what you truly believe about God is revealed.

Does your theology hold? Does it anchor you to the truth? Or do you find yourself grasping at straws, unsure if the God you studied on paper can truly hold you? There's only one remedy. There's only one school that will teach us the theology that sustains us.

And I said it before, it is that of beholding Christ. The Apostle Paul said it this way in 2 Corinthians 3 .18, Christ in the gospel is not just an easy doctrine to analyze, but the glory to behold. It is a truth that speaks to the deepest fears and doubts that we face.

And if we see this, if we see this glory clearly, it will transform us. It will. It will anchor us when we feel we're being dragged down by the world. It will conform us in the face of our sins and give us confidence to draw near to God, even when we feel most unworthy to do so.

And so as I asked you all a question earlier, how secure is your salvation? I'm excited to think about this question because how powerfully our text answers that question of how secure our salvation is.

Let's read it again. Romans chapter 8, 29 and 30. Did you notice it? The pronoun he is repeated again and again and again. It's almost as if Paul wants to make sure that God is set so clearly before our eyes so that we may behold him and his great work.

So that we would see the redemption is the work of God all the way through. There's not an inch of ground left to be covered by man. That brings us to our first link, our first point for knowledge. And so look back at the text once again in verse 29 and think what part does man play in redemption?

Let's look at where it begins. For those whom he foreknew. Stop there. What does Paul mean when he speaks of God saying those whom he foreknew? The term foreknowledge is not foresight. But rather it's the fullness of his love that is set upon his people as a promise before time even began.

Where were you before time began? Nowhere. You were a thought on God's mind. Those he foreknew. It carries the same idea that we see in Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5. When God spoke to him saying before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.

The word known implies an intimate knowledge and choosing selection. The word known implies an intimate knowledge and choosing selection. And this love that God sets upon his people is rooted in his character, not our actions.

God says it this way to Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 6 through 8. He says, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

So you see foreknowledge. Redemption was decided before you existed. Before you existed, redemption was set. It is not so incredibly, is it not so incredibly humbling to realize that God's love for us precedes our existence?

Paul says it this way in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4. He chose us in him before, before what? The foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. This means that God's choice to redeem us in Christ was made before we ever existed.

It wasn't based on any works or decisions that you might make because we didn't exist yet to do or decide anything. Our salvation was determined entirely by his will and his love, not by anything we contributed.

God's foreknowledge rooted in eternity past eliminates any illusion that we could contribute to our salvation. Even if God's foreknowledge would be based upon what he sees in us, he would see in all of us exactly what King David knew of himself.

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. And so if all we thought about was the foreknowledge of God today and explore the depths of the fact that God's motive for redemption had nothing to do with you, that it was outside of you, we would have enough reason to simply sit and wonder at just this link in the golden chain of salvation.

But Paul continues to elaborate on these links within the golden chains. It brings us to the second link, predestination. Verse 29, he says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Paul tells us what the will of God is. God desires that Christ may be seen as the firstborn among many brothers and that these he redeems would be conformed to the image of Christ. This is the destination.

God's foreknowledge leads to predestination and predestination ensures that God's plan for us is not left to chance. He has determined what our end would be. If he left it up to your determination, I don't even need to say what that would be.

We all know.

In order to ensure this immeasurable blessing that God wanted to give to his people, he placed all the responsibility on his own shoulders. But this isn't a cold, arbitrary decree, but rather a loving purpose by which he predestines us for adoption.

Brothers and sisters, adoption. Turn to Ephesians chapter one for a second. Ephesians one verses four through five. Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. Paul tells the Ephesians that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

And that in love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. You see, it's an important root word here to note in the word predestination is the word destination.

You can see even from our texts in Romans and right here in Ephesians, there is a destination that God desires to bring his people to, according to his will. And my friends, this destination, God must do this work.

He must.

Do you see what his will is?

That you would be holy and blameless, conformed to the image of his son. Does anybody see a major problem here? Does anybody see a major problem with us getting to that destination to be holy and blameless?

There is a seemingly impossible obstacle to overcome for that to come to fruition. Who can measure the distance between simple man and conformity to Christ? How far apart are these two things? By nature, your will is against God.

The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. We shouldn't lament with Job, saying, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.

We are that unclean thing, and therefore nothing clean and holy can come from us. We cannot produce holiness. I know how desperately we need a God who is willing and able to set the place of our destination, and one who has the love and power to make it come to pass.

God's predestination is the gracious and necessary outworking of his foreknowledge. Without it, none of us could overcome our natural resistance and blindness to him. And my friends, there's something just so terribly broken in us by nature.

How is it that we resist our creator, our maker, our God? Paul says in Romans, what can be known about God has been made plain to us because God has shown it to us. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities and divine nature have been clearly seen.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaim his handiwork. In view of such things, we are without excuse. For even Romans 2 .15 tells us that God has written his law upon the hearts of mankind, while their conscience also bears witness.

We are without excuse. In these things, God has made himself known to us, but we refuse him still. Yet what God has revealed in creation, and even our own consciences, cannot break this heart and will.

So let's think about it. We are a people who have denied what is clearly seen in and through creation. We knew we were created, and we knew we lived under the authority of God, and yet we denied him the honor he deserved.

Yet God did not leave it up to us to find the path to this destination. He would give us his very word to show us the path to this destination. Hebrews chapter 1, verses 1 through 2. Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets.

But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. How glorious is this, God speaking to fallen man. We should have no business with God speaking to us after the fall in the garden.

There should be a damning silence from the heavens in the face of our sin. There should not be a God who is speaking to us. There should be silence. And yet, he speaks to man. He speaks to us. And what do we hear him speak?

Words of hope, words of peace and love. How glorious and gracious is that the God of the universe would stoop down to us to reveal himself through his word. This is not a small gift. The word of God is not merely a book.

It's the very breath of God, inspired and preserved for us. And in it, God's will, or God unveils his character, his purposes, and his promises. And yet, even in this gracious gift of his word, we present more obstacles.

Our resistance just goes so deep. It's so deep for us to get to this destination. 1 Corinthians 2 .14 tells us the natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him.

And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. And so, I'd ask, how can the spiritually dead discern that which is spiritual? This is not the work for the wise or the smart or the scholarly to figure out.

God's word is spiritually discerned. What's going to break this heart and will? How does God bring us from this state of utter inability to the destination he has set for his people? If we are the ones who are hostile to God, unable to submit to his law, unable to see even what his word says, and incapable of producing holiness, how can we ever hope to move toward this destination of conformity to Christ?

How does that happen? Not by the will of man. Not by the power of man.

But by the will of God.

Yes, God must yet again work on behalf for his people. There are still great obstacles to overcome, and he takes the responsibility of the task again upon himself. And the answer lies in the next link in the golden chain of salvation, God's calling.

Number three, God's calling. Keep your finger where we are here in Ephesians, but go back to our text in Romans 8. So we're going to be coming back to Ephesians in a second. Verse 30a, and those whom he predestined, he also called.

So predestination establishes the plan, but calling is how God begins to execute that plan in our lives. Say that again, predestination establishes the plan, but calling is how God begins to execute that plan in our lives.

All right, now go back to Ephesians 2. Let all of what Paul tells us sink in. Romans 2, 1 through 5. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

And we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

See, this is not a general call, but the effectual call of the spirit that brings us from death to life. When God calls, he brings this call to fruition. God is not calling and wondering if it will work.

It works.

Through the ministry of the word, the Holy Spirit gives life to that which is once dead. Man does nothing but lie silent in the grave of his sins until God calls us out through his spirit. If God should choose this morning to call the hardest of hearts that hears the gospel, though his flesh may try as hard as it likes to plunge itself into unbelief, God can make him alive and make him new in Christ.

Think about Paul, who was once Saul. Is that not a hard, hard heart? Or Jonah? Resisting God, resisting God, resisting God. And then he's the one who cries out from the fish, salvation is of the Lord.

Yet even if some delusion of our flesh has even slightly convinced us that we played a role in our response to God's calling, remember the words of Jesus when he said in John three, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water in the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit. My friends, you have no more control over your first birth than you do regarding your second birth. You must be born again to see the kingdom of God.

And it is the Holy Spirit who must convict you of sin to repent and believe and for God to give you the grace of his faith and to believe in him. And for those of you who have repented and believe that is evidence of God's supernatural work in you.

I fear we downplay this reality, the supernatural work. You who sit in this room here today, who have been convicted by their sinfulness before God and have placed their trust in Christ, that is a divine, from God, supernatural work.

God did that. Nobody gave it to you. It wasn't a good preacher that made that happen. It wasn't a good friend. It was nothing apart from God divinely working supernaturally, outside of the natural, outside of us.

This is why Paul calls our faith a gift from God. For Christ himself said to us, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. I think, I hope, you're starting to see what God is doing in these golden chains of salvation because he's doing everything.

And what glorious assurance flows from this truth. So number four, the fourth link in the chain, justification. Go back to our text, Romans 8, verse 30b. Romans 8, verse 30. And those whom he called, he also justified.

If you've been called by God, if the Father has drawn you to Christ, and you have responded in repentance and faith, then know this, his work in you does not stop there. The God who calls is the same God who justifies.

He does not merely draw sinners to himself and then leave them in their sin. He doesn't invite them to himself and then goes, we got to fix this. He declares them righteous through the finished work of Christ.

And this is the unbreakable promise of his grace found in this golden chain of salvation. Those whom he called, he also justified. We have to marvel at this astonishing truth that God not only draws us to himself, but removes every barrier to fellowship with him by justifying us in his sight.

You see, this is what's amazing. He knew who he was calling. He saw us in our sin. And he called us. And this people would not be a people who would be able to redeem themselves from the curse of the law.

We had no offering that could take away our sin. We weren't coming with something to give God to make our sin go away. All the law did was reveal our sinfulness. Turn a few pages over to chapter three in Romans chapter three verses 20 through 26.

It says it this way. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin. And now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. There is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

In this work of God. Being both the just and the justifier. Where were you in this equation. What input did you have. Our only contribution was the nails that pierced our Savior, and the stripes on his back, and the full wrath of God that he endured on the cross.

On your behalf. Do you see what your God called you to. He called you to come be justified. He has called you to himself. And what it is that we see when we come to him in faith, what is it. The whole dilemma of God who takes away the sin of the world.

We see Christ Jesus who redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteousness for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God. The wages of sin is death.

That is why a death was required. But this is not the end of our needs. Jesus was not mincing words when he said you must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. The wages of our sin may be paid.

But how will we approach God without any righteousness of our own. Just as Jesus told the rich young ruler. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.

Impossible.

That is why for our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. You see being just in the eyes of God requires what is called the double cure.

We need the debt of sin paid, and we need to be righteous, clean. We need to be the ones who have kept the commandments of God. We must be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. But as we know, for as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners.

So by the one man's disobedience, the many will be made righteous. Through faith in Christ, his perfect obedience and sinless life are credited to us as if we had lived it our whole lives ourselves. This frees us from the burden of the law that demands we work to obtain righteousness.

Instead, we're called to rest upon the work of Christ in faith. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. To the one who does not work.

Yet God's gracious work does not end with justification. So that brings us to our last link, number five, glorification. Verse 30C, and those whom he justified, he also glorified. The same God who justifies also promises to glorify his people.

Justification declares us righteous. Glorification transforms us into the fullness of that righteousness. It is the culmination of his saving work when we are freed not only from the penalty and power of sin, but even from its very presence.

Look at the verse again. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Did you notice the past tense? Our future glorification is so certain that it is no wonder he told the Philippians,. Of this I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.

You see, my friends, far too often this golden link in the chain is overlooked. Far too often we do not marvel at this truth. What no eye has seen, nor ear, nor the heart of man imagine what God has prepared for those who love him.

This is the glorious culmination of God's redemptive work. We have an inheritance waiting for us that is beyond comparison. One so glorious that in the face of Paul's great suffering, he said this,. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

At our glorification, it will be the very moment when we face, when we, when, let me say it again. At our glorification, it will be the very moment when every trace of sin and brokenness is forever removed and we are made new.

Can you imagine the relief of being free from the bodies of death? No more sorrow, no more tears, no more struggle with sin and its effects. We will receive new and perishable bodies free from weakness and decay, perfectly suited to dwell in the presence of our God.

We will dwell forever in the pleased presence of the one who redeemed us. Every longing will be satisfied, every wound healed, and every sorrow forgotten in the overwhelming radiance of his glory and grace.

Each of these acts of God form an unbreakable chain. And not one soul that God sets his love upon falls out between the work from God's knowledge to his glorification. This is the assurance of our salvation.

It is all of God from beginning to end. And what motivated him to do this? It was not us. There was nothing good to be found in us. All goodness is found in him. We know that God was moved with pity and compassion and love for us broken and sinful rebels.

So now, if you find yourself sitting there thinking, well, Pastor, I don't really feel convicted. You haven't really shown me my need. When are you going to preach the law and kind of like help me get to see how good this is?

I want to speak directly to that thought. Because that response exposes a profound truth about our hearts and our desperate need for this sort of grace. Consider for a moment what you just heard. We've been gazing into the unfathomable depths of God's plan of salvation.

A plan so perfect, so thorough, so filled with grace and mercy that it overcame every barrier, every act of your rebellion and sin and inability. God didn't wait for you to come to him, for you would not come to him.

He didn't demand that you clean yourself up to receive forgiveness. No, while you were running fast, as fast as you could into the depths of hell, he pursued you. While you were still a sinner, Christ died for you.

He bore the punishment you deserve, removing every obstacle that stood between you and eternal life with him. And so I would ask you this, is that not enough to move your heart? Can you really hear of this astonishing love and remain cold to it?

If so, that reality is far more convicting than you may realize as you break the greatest commandment of God to love God. How can you not see this and love him? You see, the most convicting evidence of our sin isn't just the bad things we've done, but it's the hardness of your heart toward a good God.