The Gospel & Glorifying Grace's Security in Election

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The Gospel & Glorifying Grace's Security in Election

March 27, 2022

God's grace continues to be marveled at throughout human history! Here is another element of his grace glorifying us in his election before the foundation of the world. He guarantees our inheritance, our glory, not because of anything inherent in us but freely and unconditionally. God's grace is greater and is secure for us in his electing. Praise God! I hope this encouraged you brothers and sisters!

Key Texts:

* Romans 8:17-18, and 30

* Ephesians 2:6

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Transcript

Yeah, and it's because we are heirs now. We are children of God now. And the spirit bears witness, that that's what the text says here, that we are children of God now.

And also provided that we suffer, which we are and we will, and that we may also be glorified, which we are and we will. So this text is speaking to a reality exactly like, yeah, it's a future thing. It's a teleological thing, like the first episode that we did, and then it's being finalized in Christ's resurrection that we look forward to.

But yeah, this is also a present reality as we seek after the glory. We also get it now and it's made secure in the resurrection of Christ. Don't think I will even ask you to make Jesus Lord of your life.

That's the most preposterous thing I could ever tell you to do. Jesus Christ is Lord of your life. Whether you serve him or not, whether you bless him, curse him, hate him, or love him, he is the Lord of your life because God has given him a name that is above every name so that the name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow, in tongue confess that he is Lord.

Some of you will bow out of the grace that has been given to you, and others will bow because your kneecaps will be broken by the one who rules the nations with a rod of iron. And I'll not apologize for this God of the Bible.

[Music] This is the For The King podcast.

I'm your host, Rocky Ramsey, joined with my co-host and brother Bryce, where we proclaim the edicts of the king over all his creation, that Yahweh reigns. I want to start this episode reading from Psalm 2 for a little pre-episode post-milt text. Tickle your guys' ears.

So Psalm 2 verses 1 through 4. Why are the nations in an uproar in the people's devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel against, together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, "Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us." He who sits in the heavens laughs and the Lord scoffs at them. Wow. Okay.

I absolutely love Psalm 2. If you want to hear a great rendition of the Psalm put to music, you should listen to Ryan Sauvay's album. I forget which one, but one of his newer ones has Psalm 2 on it. I don't know if you remember, Bryce.

Exactly. I can't remember what the album name is. Yeah, I can't either.

But that's a great song. And the beauty of this song, which should be put the music, it's a song, is that God is looking at these people that are a complete hatred of his rule, right? They're binding themselves together to break the cords of Yahweh. They don't like that.

They're bound to God as creator. So what are they trying to do? They're trying to burst the bonds that God has made on the world, creator-creature-distinction. And what does God do? He looks down and he laughs.

Well, no, he looks and he's waiting like, "You know, there's going to come a day when I set a millennial kingdom on the earth." Eventually. That's what that's what the text says. Yeah, he doesn't have the laugh yet.

He can't laugh yet because Satan's still in control of the whole world. But God will have his laugh one day. Yeah, he'll have the last laugh eventually.

Yeah. No, this says now, he's looking now in Psalm 2. This is even before Christ. He's looking and he's laughing at them.

And then he says what he's going to do. He says, "I'm going to set my king up on Zion." And that's talking about Christ. So it's always, as we talk about this Gospel Foundation series, it's always rooted in the person of Christ.

That's why God says in Psalm 2, when he looks and laughs, why does he laugh? He knows he's going to set his king on Zion's Hill, which is Christ. Okay. So that's the beauty of the post-millennial perspective on scripture.

I want to always encourage you guys with that, as all this stuff with Ukraine, Russia, and you're probably seeing a lot of prophecy and Ezekiel 38 stuff, Gogamagog, oh no, it's happening. No, be encouraged. Christianity is going to the ends of the earth.

The kingship of Christ will be proclaimed to the ends and the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters of the sea cover its face. So be encouraged. This is what's happening.

Don't have your eschatology be based on news headlines. So we're continuing on the Gospel Foundation series. We're still in the midst of talking about soteriology, which is the study of the doctrine of salvation.

And that is the anchor by which the scope and the effects of the Gospel take place. One of the effects, in a sense, the most important thing is the regenerate heart of a man when they hold fast to Christ. So that's why we're continuing to talk about soterology here.

So don't worry, Bryce and I will get there eventually. We're not pietists or we're not in churchy-anity, right? We believe that the Gospel is for everyone in every institution, at every level of society. So last week, I was joined by Bryce and I talked about glorifying grace being final in the resurrection of Christ.

And we went through a few texts mainly 1 Corinthians 15, how the glorification of our bodies one day is founded on the first fruits of Christ's resurrection, his body. He was the first fruits risen from the dead. Now we're going to continue on in our little mini-series in the Gospel Foundation, talking about a grace that glorifies.

And we're getting now to a grace, a glorifying grace that is even true of us now, positionally in Christ. So the part of glorifying grace that I talked about last week, that it's final in the resurrection of Christ, is Jesus is securing for us, eventually a glorified body. Now we're talking about how we actually are glorified with him now.

God's grace is glorifying us now. And there's a few texts we're going to go to that to make our case here. So Bryce, can you start us off here? Yeah.

Are we doing the Romans 8, 16 and 17 verse first? Yeah, I would. Yeah, let's go there first. Okay.

So Romans 8, 16 and 17 says this, "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." So this text fundamentally roots that our glorification is sure in God's election. And this is a positional act. This will end up getting to this text later on, later on in Romans chapter 8. But with this text specifically, it's talking about the telos, the end, sort of like what Rocky was bringing up last week, what the glorification is final in the resurrection.

This is something that has been perfected in time that we are declared glorified with God. Yeah, in this instance, what we're seeing right here is that we suffer with Christ and that we may also be glorified with Christ. And this is really taking place presently.

We are passing from one degree of glory to the next, but this is a position in time that we hold as being glorified with God. And this comes with being in air with Christ. You're glorified with Christ by being in air with Christ because you have been seated with him in the heavenly places.

So this does bring up an element of both the final resurrection, when we see Christ and we are as he is, we become glorified with him. And this is also talking about a position that we now hold as being heirs with Jesus. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's because we are heirs now. We are children of God now and the spirit bears witness that that's what the text says here, that we are children of God now.

But yeah, this is also a present reality as we seek after the glory. We also get it now and it's made secure in the resurrection of Christ. Anything else there? Did I miss anything or? No, I think once we go on, it makes much more sense once we use Romans eight, 30.

Yeah. So then we get to Romans eight verse, I'll just do 29 and 30 just because it's, you know, it's the golden chain. I want to keep everything together.

So this is what Paul says a little bit later, a few verses later in that same chapter. For those whom he fordo, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the first born among many brothers and those whom he predestined, he also called and those who he called, he also justified and those whom he justified, he also glorified. So again, we're getting all the elements, you know, this is why we went in this order.

We're getting kind of all the elements of what we've been talking about continued here. So we see that first episode where we talked about a second Corinthians three 18, we see that showing up here. We're being conformed to the image of the son.

So we're getting this language here. It should remind us of that verse in second Corinthians. We're being transformed from one degree of glory to the next as we behold his face.

So we're being conformed to that image in order that he might be the first born among many brothers or brethren. Okay, so that hearkens back to last episode how Jesus is the first born of this kind of restored image of humanity. Obviously, Christ isn't needing it restored in him.

He perfectly image bore the image of God, you know, and we're going after his image now the image of Christ, which is the very image of God, you know, there's no there's no difference there. But hopefully you see what I'm saying there. So Jesus is the first born among many brothers.

So right, Bryce. Yeah. Yeah.

And so the point you the point you bring up there to really emphasize is that we can distinguish these things, but they're really inseparable. That's exactly what you're bringing up. They're really.

Yeah, yeah. We're trying to make that case. But also, we're breaking it to a mini series, because we still need to articulate the little nuances and differences to them because Scripture is that rich when it's talking about a grace that glorifies, you know, so that that's what makes God's word so beautiful that there's a lot we can extract from it.

But also, it all runs together so perfectly. And there's one idea being really presented here. So then in verse 30, we then get the golden chain.

Those who he predestined, he also called those who he called, he also justified those who he justified. He also glorified. He did that.

The text is saying he did that. Now, there's also again, there's the future element of glorification that we're looking forward to. Again, that there's an already but not yet reality to glorifying grace here.

But when God is doing this, electing somebody, he's also glorifying them in this in the same way there. This is all an inseparable kind of cascading, beautiful waterfall of God's grace, right? Yeah, we've talked about this verse before many times, but this is such a rich verse, and you can always come back to it for a new idea, a new idea or a new thing to extract from the text. But the point here is that God's grace in election, those whom he predestined, he calls, he justifies, he glorifies, he happens, he does it.

It has happened, as we'll read in this last text, it has happened. And it also will happen. Right.

Good advice. Yeah. And I think that's really the specific thing that we're trying to hit on here is this is like Rocky said, this is not in the future tenants, it's a present perfect tenants.

It's something that is, it's a sure it's something that has happened. It's something that has occurred to you. And it cannot be faltered.

It can't be changed. This is an immutable gift that God has given us that no, no one either, neither through life or death, either angel nor demon, none of them can separate us from these realities, as Paul will continue on to say, because we have been made the children of God, God has made us his own, he's given us the inheritances. And with the inheritances comes the glory.

And you see a shadow of this in chapter nine, verse four, talking about the Israelites, it says to the Israelites to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, yada, yada, yada to them belong to that glory. Yet they did not have it perfectly. Right? We received that perfectly in God's election.

So once it's grounded, and this eternal act of God, who can never lie, who promised you before the ages began, when he promised you this election, you will receive it. And we receive this glory presently through the means of God's election in our lives, not in time, but this is before the foundation of the world. So we receive this glory and time as we are found to be born again.

But this is something that has been set up before the world even started before the sun started giving its light or the moon is light. Yeah, that's beautiful, rice, beautiful presentation. And I love that you brought in nine four in this too, that to them was given all these things.

But what did they do? Romans one, they exchanged it for the exchange, the glory of God for the glory of creatures created things. So again, we're not all this glory, it's found in Christ, it's finalized in Christ, it's found in God. Again, we always want to be presenting to you guys as we teach this, these texts that God's it's God's grace in all of this glorification that's happening.

We seek after it. It's final in Christ. And it's put in us positionally by God's election before the foundation of the world.

It's all God's doing all this, all those three things I just named so far before we get to our last installment next week is done by God. And you know, it's going to be no surprise next week when we talk about our topic that it's also God doing that as well. Right? So all the glory to God.

I'm sorry, what? Yeah, sorry, I was just gonna add one more point to it all. There might arise a question as what sort of glory is this that we're referring to? And we've hinted at it previously and spoke of it directly, that this is the glory that comes from God. A good analogy that we can use to understand something like this is you can look at the temple of Diana, or all these pagan Greco gods in the temple that that they that these Greeks would build for their gods.

And you can see that it's a beautiful structure. It has great architecture, but ultimately, it's robbed and deprived of glory, because the gods are actually no gods at all. They have no glory in themselves, because they are not the eternal creator, they are mere creatures.

So the difference that we're talking about is we are the temple of God. And we have the Holy Spirit, who is the glory of God, dwelling within us, and he is a consuming fire. It's the fire of God's glory that dwells within us, right? God is our glory, as it says in the Old Covenant.

So that's the sort of glory that we're talking about that we radiate as the temple of God, by the spirit dwelling in our midst. That's the whole point that God dwells with us, he's in us. And we've been made children of God by the spirit, right? And the spirit himself dwells within us.

And that's the glory. That's where this comes from. It comes from God, right? So we are glorified, meaning that something has really been affected by the gospel.

Something has happened in us, and namely that we have received glory and glorification in time. Yeah. Moved by God's grace.

Yeah. And then just to corroborate your point, as we move over to Ephesians to kind of wrap up here, Ephesians 16 and 17, "I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory," the Father of glory, that's where glory comes from, "the Father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him." So we see the spirit there. He's giving us a spirit, and we are now glorified vicariously through that.

And then he goes on to say, "having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know the hope of which you were called," and then blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So this enlightening, this seeking after, glorifying grace, it's all work of God. And this is going to lead us into our last text here, Ephesians 2, I'll do five and six.

"Even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places of Christ Jesus." Now there's no explicit word glory being used here in the text of Scripture, but is this not a position of authority, being seated with Christ in the heavenly places? The 24 elders in the eternal state, 12 of them being the apostles, right? I mean, being seated with God is a position of authority. And again, we see clearly here, by grace you have been saved and you've been raised up. So this grace is a glorifying type of grace as well.

That's the case we're making in this series, as we talk about God's grace and exalt God's grace, make his grace look amazing and show, and try to show you guys how much God's grace does for us. It does so much in our hearts. It justifies us, sanctifies us, glorifies us.

It does all that. That is God's grace. That's what it does.

That's what he does. It's his grace. And he seats us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

That's the riches of his grace right there. We're seated with Christ in the place of honor. And again, this harkens back to being an heir.

The heir sits at the table at the Lamb's Supper, right? The heirs of the father, any father, you know, even think about the prodigal son. He comes back, the heir, he blew his inheritance, but there was still an inheritance for him by his father, just receiving him back into his arms. There was still the inheritance of his father's love in the prodigal son.

And then they have a feast. And I'm sure the prodigal son was given a place of honor, a seat by his father. So let's not be like the other son, right? And be jealous that God's giving grace to us and others, right? We don't want to be like Jonah.

We want to, we want our enemies. We want those that don't know Christ to experience the same type of grace. Yeah.

Any other thoughts there, Bryce? And I mean, ultimately, that just happens via conquest, right? There, the glory of one nation, the nation, the kingdom of Christ comes and it pillages and plunders the, the vain glory of this world that it might be glorified. Because while we are also passing from one degree of glory to the next, so too is the world, the earth and the human, both pass from one degree of glory to the next. Yeah.

So it's all reaching the teleological end, which is final glorification for God. Exactly. So yeah.

And that's why, sorry. Well, I was just going to say, yeah, going back to starting with Psalm two, God laughs because he knows he's going to send his son to conquest to, to completely upend the entire world. Yeah.

And that's the main feature of Romans chapter eight as well is that the creation groans as it's longing for the appearing of the glory of the sons of God, those who have been adopted. Yeah. So they're waiting for that appearing.

So that, that, that's what we're ultimately waiting for as well, for mankind to come to Jesus and to receive that sort of glory as he's can quite conquesting and colonizing the world. Yep. Yeah.

Amen. That's the post-mall hope. And that is what the scriptures clearly teach.

It's not just a theological position, a post-mall. You know, we're not trying to make categories and say, Oh, I believe in this, this interpretation of scripture. It's what is the truth of scripture.

And if you've arrived at it, then it's not, you really shouldn't try to categorize it in the theology. It's just what the scriptures teach. So yep.

Hopefully you can see that being articulated. Well, I guess that's the end. That's what we'll wrap up here.

So again, a reminder, God's grace, his glorifying grace is secured in our election before the foundation of the world. In, in us being elected and chosen in Christ, are we glorified? We got to wrap up here. You can go check us out at for the king podcast.com. You can reach me at for the king podcast@gmail.com. And I just made some t-shirts with some cool stuff on it.

If you guys want to check that out, I'll put a link. It's a, it's a bonfire.com forward slash, I think for the king, uh, boards slash something like that. But you can see it in the show notes.

Thanks for joining me. Thanks for listening. Um, to the king of the ages, a mortal, invisible, the only God we honor and would forever and ever.

Amen. So we day of. Oh yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[Music]