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Date: 10/11/08
Title: Those who are in Christ.
Pasage
Rom. 8:29 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;
Rom. 8:30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also
justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
Rom. 8:31 ¶ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Rom. 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not
also with Him freely give us all things?
Rom. 8:33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;
Rom. 8:34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was
raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Rom. 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom. 8:36 Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY
LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.”
Rom. 8:37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.
Rom. 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things
present, nor things to come, nor powers,
Rom. 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Review
Foreknowledge.
- The foreknowledge here is not a perception or a matter of omnicience, or that God
looked into the future.
o No. Future did not exist when God foreknew His children.
o Nothing existed around God in that eternity past
o In fact, everything that ever existed is created by God
o So then, the future is authored and made by God and God alone, according to
His will and timing
-
- Therefore foreknowledge is a conception of things God would do.
o That before creation. God conceived in His mind additional children in His family.
Completed State
Therefore, what God conceived in His mind was not just people who would believe in Christ
[According church of the Nazarene] but a fully conformed sons of God in glory [According to
the Apostle Paul].
Finish Product
As I said last week, God thought of a finish product and not a product in need of
improvement.
Once again, God did not look into the future, and saw those who would believe in Christ, then
decided to elect them for the further future glory.
Let us understand the word Predestined, to bring everybody to the same page.
Predestined
- “proorizo”
o Pro – before
o Horizo – determine, ordaine
The purpose of this foreknowledge and predestination is to bring out children of God from
creation that is fully conformed to the image of His only Begotten Son.
Actually, everything is foreknown by God but only the sons of God are determined by God to
be conformed to the image of His son.
What is Conformity
Rom. 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and
perfect.
“Suschematizo”
- Sun - Together
- Schema - A diagrammatic representation; an outline or a model, or a pattern
o Shape to the same pattern
o Ex. Flat Dough
You have a flat dough, and you stumpt it with cookie mold to create a
Teddy Bear Cookie.
The shape is instantaneous.
The idea in this verse is, watch yourself as you may suddenly act like
wordly.
Rom. 8:29 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;
“Summorphos”
- Sun - together
- Morphe – Formed
o Jointly formed – all sons together are being transformed
o A gradual transformation although here it is rendered as finish or completed
transformation
o Ex. Clay
Like a lump of clay and you are gradually forming the clay into a jar.
Original order
Gen. 1:26 ¶ Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image [first], according to Our likeness
[second]; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the
cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Reverse order.
Gen. 5:3 ¶ When Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years, he became the father of a son in
his own likeness [first], according to his image [second], and named him Seth.
Therefore, Image (in verse 29) is to have the same qualities and features of the Son of God but
not exactly like the Son.
Basically, the Eternal Son of God is being copied in creation but not duplicated.
So that when you look at the children of God, they are really children of God without a doubt
because they are according the the likeness of the The Only Begotten Son of God.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Angels, not
We know that the Angels are not conformed to the image of His only Begotten Son.
They are holy, so as the Son of God, yet not conformed
HS, not
So as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ are not brothers. In God, there is one
and only Son, that is Jesus Christ.
Non-believer, not
Not even the rest of humanity shall be conformed, only a remnant will be conformed.
Again, Literally!
Actually!
In reality, brothers to Christ!
Therefore since Christ is a Son to God, so as these predestined people, must also be literal
sons to God.
If sonship is this literal, then conformity is so much more than characters of Christ.
More than just holiness and perfect.
The Conformity
First…
1. Conformity in sonship
Rom. 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
Rom. 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have
received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
Adoption - “huiothesia” –
Compound word:
1. Huios – A son
2. And a derivative of “tithemi” – To place
Did He somehow pick people from somewhere and place them as sons in his family?
Did God give Christ brothers that are somehow alien to him?
i. First, by conception
a. They begun in the mind of God.
b. Before God created them He conceived them in His mind.
c. They were foreknown and predestined to be brothers of Christ.
i. Romans 8:29
ii. Second, by birth – that is spiritual birth.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born
again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:4 ¶ Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot
enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the
Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.
This is a co-relation.
My point.
- The people that God placed as sons in His family are from God himself!
o By Conception, foreknowledge and predestination
o By Spiritual Birth, regeneration/or recreation.
o By Rearing them or caring them to maturity, the process of sanctification
-
- God did not pick them up from streets and gave them to Jesus.
- They were conceived by God and born of Holy Spirit, and personally reared by the
Father to become brothers to Christ.
Therefore, the brothers and sisters that Christ received ARE FROM His Father Himself through
the Holy Spirit.
My point is: The sons of God are from God as well. He did not adopt them from outside into
His family. They are from God’s family!!!
To prove this:
READ
Heb 2:10For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in
bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
Heb. 2:11 For both He who sanctifies [CHRIST] and those who are sanctified [SONS OF GOD]
are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren [BECAUSE
THEY ARE HIS BROTHERS GIVEN BY GOD],
Heb. 2:12 saying,
“I WILL PROCLAIM YOUR NAME TO MY BRETHREN,
IN THE MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION I WILL SING YOUR PRAISE.”
Heb. 2:13 And again,
“I WILL PUT MY TRUST IN HIM.”
And again,
“BEHOLD, I AND THE CHILDREN WHOM GOD HAS GIVEN ME.”
Therefore, the sons of God are from God given by God to God.
Rom. 8:16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
Rom. 8:17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer
with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
NOT CONVINSE?
Called to suffer
1Pet. 2:20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with
patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor
with God.
1Pet. 2:21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving
you an example for you to follow in His steps,
Suffering Church
2Cor. 1:5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is
abundant through Christ.
2Cor. 1:6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for
your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also
suffer;
Acts 5:40 ¶ They took his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered
them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them.
Acts 5:41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had
been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.
Matt. 10:38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.
Matt. 10:39 “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find
it.
One day in havean you will bear the likeness of His only Begotten Son. The angels will look you
at you and they’ll see a child of God, without a doubt.
Again, Literally!
Actually!
And in reality, sons of God.
In View of time:
Conclusion:
In a sense, we are not just created, we develop as well. None in creation like this.
They are not the one who confesses Jesus to be their Savior and Lord.
They are not the one who put their hope in their time of conversion.
They are not the one who are regular attendee of any church.