We learned last week that God foreknew a people from eternity whom He determined, lovingly, wisely and unconditionally to honour and bless with glory and eternal life. We noted God’s foreknowledge is personal and distinguishing. It is not what but whom He did foreknow. These individuals are saved and called, Paul tells Timothy, ‘according to his (God’s) own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began’. 

Luke tells us in Acts 15:18, ‘Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world’ and certain it is we cannot begin to comprehend the infinite glory and transcendent majesty of the eternal God if we do not confess His unbounded knowledge. Yet, we must always be humble and careful in trying to understand the nature of God. We are mere spectators, fallen and corrupt at that, before the revelation of the One true God who is essentially unknowable beyond what He is pleased to communicate to us in His word.

Verse 28 teaches the church of Jesus Christ about effectual calling. Here Paul identifies a people whom He designates, ‘the called’. It is not the first time Paul has employed this title to describe the believers in Rome. In 1:6 he tells them their faith confirms them ‘among the called of Jesus Christ’. The called are saved men and women; boys and girls, who have been regenerated, made spiritually alive and made partakers of the new birth by God the Holy Ghost. They are ‘called’ to salvation internally by efficacious grace and externally by the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  A spiritual work This calling is not an appointment to an office in the church nor a commission to fulfil a…

The Lord Jesus Christ tells us that men ought always to pray and not to faint. Actually, there are many things men ought always to do but by nature we cannot and will not do them. For example, we will not give God the honour, praise and love He is due from His creatures. We will not glorify His name. Far from loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength we hate Him by nature and despise His claims upon us. A long way down Paul has in this very chapter described our fallen nature as ‘enmity against God’. Enmity is mankind’s governing principle of aversion and hostility towards God in heart and mind. It is the state of all…

It is my plan, God willing, to spend a few weeks dwelling on some of the wonderful truths bound up in Romans 8:28-30. I appreciate we are here breaking into a larger section of Paul’s teaching but I trust the Holy Spirit will enable us to draw some spiritual benefit from holding up these diamonds to the light to marvel at the beauty they contain. These verses have been likened to a golden chain of salvation with each golden link precious in itself. A word in context The Apostle Paul begins by speaking of all things working together for good. This is not a stand-alone statement. It is actually the answer to a question anticipated by the apostle. He has been speaking of the great…

It is an especial delight for a gospel preacher to preach from a passage so full of the Lord Jesus Christ as are these two verses.  Jude brings his little epistle to an end in a doxology that beautifully elevates the glory of Christ and must surely be amongst the highest examples of earthly worship known to man. He is magnifying our Saviour who is able and willing to save His people from their sins, preserve them holy, in time, and present them faultless in glory with great joy. It is fully consistent with Jude’s strong sovereign grace emphasis in this epistle that at its end He who is all-wise and all-powerful should be thus worshipped.  Worthy of praise It is to Christ that Jude…