Glorified By God
Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 27th October service and hymns are below.
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Our principal verses are:
Rom 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.
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.
Rom 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.
Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Glorified By God
It is a matter of great importance that the Bible speaks to sinful men and women about the possibility of eternal life, eternal glory and everlasting happiness in the divine presence. In the mercy of God He has secured atonement and granted forgiveness from sin by the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His goodness and grace He encourages hope amongst fallen creatures for more and better than we deserve.
All of God
It is the church’s eternal glory Paul is speaking about in our verses and again we note the apostle’s emphasis that glorification is the work of God alone. It is God who glorifies His people. He does so by endowing them with all the blessings He has prepared for them that love Him. We often use glory as a synonym for heaven but it is useful to remember glory for believers is more than the place prepared for us. It is the state of everlasting blessedness we have already entered into as the church of Jesus Christ.
The success of the cross
Glory as the God-man was given to the Lord Jesus when He successfully fulfilled the terms of the covenant of grace and redeemed the elect from their sins. All who are united to Christ as His body share the victory and inheritance of Christ who is the Head of the body. In this sense glory for believers has already begun. It will continue and increase when we enter more fully into the Lord’s presence and into the mansions prepared in heaven.
No glory in our works
We should not, as some do, imagine glory to be earned by believers based on our good works, obedience and sacrifice. All our glory is derived from the Lord Jesus with whom we are heirs and joint heirs together. Glory is not our reward but Christ’s reward in us. Glory in Christ is given to all whom God loved, set apart and purposed to save from eternity. Glory is what the elect are predestinated to enjoy and called to possess. It is what our justification gives us a right and title to. It is our likeness to Christ and conformity to Him.
Like ‘The King’s daughter’
Enjoyment of heavenly glory is the present experience of that part of the believing church already ascended into the presence of the Saviour. The promise of heavenly glory assures those who are yet alive and remain on earth of imminent joys ahead. Though still in this world of sin believers are ‘all-glorious within’. We are so by the grace of God, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the robe of Christ’s righteousness. Our glory, in the hands of Christ, is certain, sure and to be anticipated eagerly in faith and hope.
A place prepared
The prospect of heaven and the glory to follow is a great comfort to the Lord’s people here on earth. Heaven is the place of everlasting blessedness where the dead in Christ already reside and wait for us. The scriptural names of this place arouse great expectation. Christ calls it His ‘Father’s house’. It is ‘paradise’, a ‘better country’ where the redeemed of the Lord sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God and the new Jerusalem. There will be there no sin, sickness, pain, tears or loneliness in that place.
Eternal life in Christ
In heaven the joy of the righteous consists in the possession of everlasting life which Paul calls ‘an eternal weight of glory’. We do not yet know the fulness of this glory for, ‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him’. Nevertheless, we may be sure, He to whom, properly speaking, all glory belongs, both knows how to give and delights to dispense, all good and perfect gifts to His children.
A light shining in darkness
It is a great chain of grace the apostle lays before the church in these verses. The divine links have their origin in the eternal purpose of God and stretch from foreknowledge and election to justification by blood and eternal glory in the Lord Jesus. Christ is the Bringer, Giver and Revealer of God’s glory to the church. The gospel of God’s grace ‘hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’.
Good things to come
Tomorrow we shall reflect upon the source of our glory, the nature of our glory, the experience of glory and the comfort these truths bestow on the tried and tested people of God.
Amen
Our hymns are below.
Hymn 1
Gadsby selection 340
Saints’ Final Perseverance. Rom. 8. 33-39; Isa. 49. 15
A. M. Toplady 8s
1
A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with thy righteousness on,
My person and offerings to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour’s obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.
2
The work which his goodness began,
The arm of his strength will complete;
His promise is Yea and Amen,
And never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now,
Not all things below nor above,
Can make him his purpose forego,
Or sever my soul from his love.
3
My name from the palms of his hands
Eternity will not erase,
Impressed on his heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace;
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is given;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in heaven.
Hymn 2
Gadsby selection 68
Election. Luke 10. 20; John 13. 1; Eph. 1. 5, 6
A. M. Toplady 11s Irreg.
1
How happy are we our election who see,
And venture, O Lord, for salvation on thee!
In Jesus approved, eternally loved,
Upheld by his power, we cannot be moved.
2
’Tis sweet to recline on the bosom divine,
And experience the comforts peculiar to thine;
While, born from above, and upheld by thy love,
With singing and triumph to Zion we move!
3
Our seeking thy face was all of thy grace;
Thy mercy demands and shall have all the praise.
No sinner can be beforehand with thee;
Thy grace is eternal, almighty, and free!
4
Our Saviour and Friend, his love shall extend;
It knew no beginning, and never shall end!
Whom once he receives, his Spirit ne’er leaves,
Nor ever repents of the grace that he gives.
5
This proof we would give that thee we receive,
Thou art precious alone to the souls that believe;
Be precious to us; all beside is as dross,
Compared with thy love and the blood of thy cross.
6
Through mercy we taste the invisible feast,
The bread of the kingdom, the wine of the blest!
Who grants us to know his drawings below
Will endless salvation and glory bestow.
God calls His people glorious because He has made us so in Christ. Glorious is not something we shall become, it is what we now are, having been chosen, called and justified by the grace of God. And there is more to come.