Romans 8:30d Loved & Glorified by God

The Introduction

And here is love:

Romans 8:30 (CSB) And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

Our God

We look up all of Romans 8:30 as a chain that begins and ends with God. To that end, predestination and glorification are things that our minds cannot fully fathom. But we rest assure that every single person predestined is called is justified is glorified.

There is no whittling or dwindling of numbers as we move along the list, Christ said:

John 10:28–31 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

The salvation and thus, glorification of the people of God are wholly dependent on the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit alone. This more than an unbreakable chain, to which there has never been a scheme or power by Satan powerful enough to break. This chain is unbreakable by the power of God and the logic of God: for no child saved by God is lost by God.

Do you believe and trust in God? Don’t give me the response, “Well, not perfectly.” But do you ever? Did you ever weep with grief at your sin before God but cried with joy that He is the God who is mighty to save?

The Gospel

“But there is often I don’t seek or chase after him. Am I saved?”

Do you know that his grace is upon grace for you? Do you know that his steadfast love never ceases? Do you know that his mercies never end because they are brand new every morning? Do you how great is his faithfulness?

My child, do you know that God is the Prodigal Father who waits patiently and eagerly for your return. Do you know that even those with the tiniest repentance and the smallest of faiths find themselves in the wide open of a sweet and glorious Savior who loved us and died for us?

It is the salvation and glorification is what I call the sheer madness of God. For I try to peer deeply into the brightness of his holiness and redemption and love and above all, glory, that surely I will go mad for it does not make sense.

For you see, it is not just that God thought of us before the foundations of the world. It is not just that he spoke and cut through the darkness of my sin and my death so that I would be fully alive. It wasn’t just that He would send His only begotten Son to live for me, die for me, raised from death for me, and then glorified for me.

No! My Lord and my God, who is the perfect maximum of everything, is completely, all-time, and never ever suppressing Himself, has the wherewithal and the audacity to glorify me with him.

Our Response

For me, who came into this world naked and helpless.

For me, just a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people.

For me, dead in my trespasses and sins in which I once walked, followed the course of this world, followed the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in other sons of disobedience— among whom I once lived in the passions of my flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

For me, foolish, disobedient, led astray, slave to various passions and pleasures, passing my days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating everybody else.

For me, the clear chief of all sinners, a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, acting ignorantly in unbelief.

But for me, God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved me, even when I was dead in my trespasses, made me alive together with Christ—by grace I have been saved— and raised me up with him and seated me with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward me in Christ Jesus. For by grace I have been saved through faith. And this is not my own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that I cannot boast. For I am his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that I should walk in them.

But for me, God my Savior appeared by his goodness and loving kindness, he saved me, not because of works done by me in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on me richly through Jesus Christ my Savior, so that being justified by his grace I might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

But for me, since birth, even when I didn’t know him nor loved him nor trusted him, He has been my God!

But for me, I received mercy when the grace of my Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

But for me, this is the saying that is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

But for me, I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

But for me, God made Christ be sin who never knew sin so that in Him I might become the righteousness of God.

But for me, the Son of God became man so that I might become a son of God.

For the angels, who are perfect in splendor and majesty and stay in the full presence of God would not receive this same glory!

To this end, what can I do?

I give thanks who has given me strength; He is Christ Jesus my Lord because He judged me faithful and appointed me to his service.

I can only love the God who has done nothing but rescued me and let me be with him for all of eternity.

He is the Lord, most high above all the earth. I will exalt him far above all other gods. I can only worship the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.