Thread: "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" (Rom. 8:29).
"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" (Rom. 8:29).
Posted : 9 Nov, 2011 02:17 AM
Predestination must be God's truth, since it stands essentially connected with our conformity to God's image. No standard short of this will meet the case. How conspicuous appears the wisdom and how glorious the goodness of God in this�that in making you holy, the model or standard of that holiness should be God himself! God would make you holy, and in doing so he would make you like himself.
But with what brush�even if it were dipped in heaven's brightest hues�can we portray the image of Jesus? The perfection of our Lord is the perfection of holiness. His Deity is essential holiness. His humanity is without sin, the personification of holiness. All that he was and said and did was as flashes of holiness emanating from the Fountain of essential purity and kindling their dazzling and undying radiance around each step he trod. How lovely, too, his character! How holy the thoughts he breathed! How pure the words he spoke! How humble the spirit he exemplified! How tender and sympathizing the outgoings of his compassion and love to man! O Lord Jesus, you are "the chief among ten thousand," "the altogether lovely" (Song 5:10, 17 KJV)!
Such is the believer's model. To this you are predestinated to be conformed.
And is not this predestination in its highest form? Would it seem possible for God to have preordained you to a greater blessing, or to have chosen you to a higher distinction? In choosing you in Christ before the foundation of the world, that you should be holy, he has advanced you to the loftiest degree of honor and happiness to which a creature can be promoted�assimilation to his own moral image.
And this forms the highest ambition of the believer. To transcribe those beauteous features which, in such perfect harmony and lovely expression, blended and shone in the life of Jesus, is the great study of all his true disciples.
But in what does this conformity consist? The first feature is a conformity of nature. And this is reciprocal. The Son of God, by an act of divine power, became human; the saints of God, by an act of sovereign grace, become 'divine,' "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4). This harmony of nature forms the basis of all conformity.
Thus grafted into Christ, we grow up into him in all holy resemblance. The meekness, the holiness, the patience, the self-denial, the zeal, the love that are traceable�albeit faintly and imperfectly�in us are transfers of Christ's own faultless features to our renewed soul. Thus the mind that was in him is in some measure in us. And in our moral conflict, battling as we do with sin and Satan and the world, we come to know a little of fellowship with his sufferings, and conformity to his death.
This supplies us with a test of Christian character. It is an anxious question with many professors of Christ, "How can I know that I am among the predestinated of God?�that I am included in his purpose of grace and love?�that I have an interest in the Lord's salvation?"
The text under consideration supplies the answer�conformity to the image of God's Son. Nothing short of this can justify the belief that you are saved. No evidence less strong can authenticate the fact of your predestination. Christ's work is a salvation, not in sin but from sin. "Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Eph. 1:4). In other words, that you should be conformed to the Divine image. That you should be like Christ�like Christ in the purity he embodied, in the humility he exemplified, in the self-denial he practiced, in the heavenly life he lived�in a word, in all that this expressive sentence comprehends, "conformed to the image of his Son."
And as you day by day grow more holy, more spiritually-minded, more closely resembling Jesus, you are placing the truth of your predestination to eternal life into a clearer, stronger light. And consequently you are placing the fact of your salvation beyond a misgiving and a doubt.
In view of this precious truth, what spiritual heart will not breathe the prayer, "O Lord! I cannot be satisfied merely to profess and call myself yours. I want more of the power of vital religion in my soul. I pant for your image. My deepest grief springs from the discovery of what little real resemblance I bear to a model so peerless, so divine�that I exemplify so little of your patience in suffering, your meekness in opposition, your forgiving spirit in injury, your gentleness in reproving. your firmness in temptation, your singleness of eye in all that I do. Oh, merciful Lord, transfer yourself wholly to me."
"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" (Rom. 8:29).
Posted : 9 Nov, 2011 03:04 AM
Praise the Lord for His absolute mercy because I would of never came to Him on my own. Way too sinful and self-absorbed.
How can a man in his fallen nature do that which is good and acceptable in the sight of God?
Romans 3:10-12 "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one."
"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" (Rom. 8:29).
"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" (Rom. 8:29).
Posted : 9 Nov, 2011 06:55 AM
This statement in Romans 8:29 was made to Christians that where walking in the light of verse:
It does not generally apply to everyone the bible was not written to people that where not baptized with the Holy Spirit:
Romans 8:26 � Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Romans 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
Verse twenty 26 and twenty 27 is who verses 28 and 29 are talking about those that had received The Gift of The Holy Spirit, no man can obey these scriptures that does not have the bible evidence of the Holy Spirit.
The Statements made concerning believe'rs are always conditional, not automatic, nothing happens lest he is a doer of the word.
Col 3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Eph 4:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 4:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 4:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 4:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 4:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
"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" (Rom. 8:29).
Posted : 9 Nov, 2011 12:50 PM
Mat 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
2Th 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
Titus 1:1-2 Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God�s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness, (2) in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,
2Tim 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called [us] with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
Revelation 13:7-8 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. (8) All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Rev 17:8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Deuteronomy 10:14-15 "Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it. (15) "The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day.
Exodus 6:7 �I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I [am] the LORD your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
Deut 7:6 For thou [art] an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that [are] upon the face of the earth.
John 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: (13) who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
John 17:1-2 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, (2) "as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.
John 6:65 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 9:29 And as Isaiah said before: "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah."
{If God had not elected some to salvation, all would be lost; had God not chosen some, none would be saved.}
1Pet 2:9 But ye [are] a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all [things] for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Romans 9:11-13 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), (12) it was said to her, "The older shall serve the younger." (13) As it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated."
Romans 11:5-7 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. (6) And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work. (7) What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
1 Kings 19:18 Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."
Psa 33:12 Blessed [is] the nation whose God [is] the LORD; [and] the people [whom] he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
Psa 65:4 Blessed [is the man whom] thou choosest, and causest to approach [unto thee, that] he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, [even] of thy holy temple.
Psalms 106:4-5 Remember me, O LORD, with the favor You have toward Your people; Oh, visit me with Your salvation, (5) That I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones, That I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, That I may glory with Your inheritance.
Mat 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and [he] to whomsoever the Son will reveal [him].
Mat 22:14 For many are called, but few [are] chosen.
Col 3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
1Th 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
Titus 1:1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;
1 Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, (2) elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
Rev 17:14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him [are] called, and chosen, and faithful.
Rom 9:16 So then [it is] not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Ephesians 1:11-12 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, (12) that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
2Tim 2:10 Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; (28) and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, (29) that no flesh should glory in His presence.
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Acts 15:14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
Acts 22:14 And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.
John 10:2-3 "But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. (3) "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
Romans 11:1-11 I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. (2) God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, (3) "LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life"? (4) But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." (5) Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. (6) And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
(7) What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. (8) Just as it is written: "God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day." (9) And David says: "Let their table become a snare and a trap, A stumbling block and a recompense to them. (10) Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always."
(11) I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.
