“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.” Romans 8:29
May 29, 2024
Have you or are you going through the valley of suffering? God gives needed encouragement. The great expanse of God’s purpose is set before the believer. It has been referred to as the five-fold chain of salvation: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification. Suffering affliction must be seen within this golden chain of security. The first pearl is that God has chosen to set His elective love upon all who belong to Christ (“whom He foreknew”). God entered into an intimate relationship with you in eternity past, if you belong to Christ. Paul is not saying that God foreknew who would believe and therefore chose them. “Foreknowledge is never used with reference to things or events but only in relation to people” (Erwin Lutzer). Foreknowledge means that God did the choosing and that the choice was made prior to creation. Rejoice in that. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can break the bond of God’s elective love that has been set upon the believer. How humbling is that? You are His, loved from eternity past. Let that sit on your mind in your valley of affliction.
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“As we learn to lose our own desires in God’s vast, all-wise and all-loving design, we come to know true peace.”
Margaret Clarkson, Destined for Glory