Rescued by Sovereignty

I am at a crossroads today. As many of you know, I am preaching through some doctrinal points concerning the nature of salvation. Where does it come from? What is our role in salvation? What is God’s role? Are we truly chosen? Does God really pass over some and elect others? A lot of tough questions. I originally thought I could preach a five week series on TULIP (the five points of Calvinism) and realized that this had to be much more than a sermon series. It needs to be a spiritual journey for me. I hope to take the congregation along with me. I hope God uses the blessings in my life through His Word to edify His people on His Day.

Oh yes, the crossroads. I am currently teaching on the sorry estate of mankind. If we don’t understand depravity and our total inability to choose God, we can never understand the fullness of salvation. We can be saved even if we ignore this doctrine, but we miss the blessing. A real blessing. We miss the depth to which Jesus went for his people. We actually cheapen the Cross if we miss the point of depravity. But I am at a crossroads. I want to teach on election and the Calvinist in me can’t wait to search the Scriptures on this great doctrine. I know it must be handled with special care and prudence but I also know it is full of God’s blessing. If I am completely depraved, how did I come to faith? God, in his infinite wisdom, chose me, a simple insignificant man. In a way, God’s redemptive purpose is really all about me in that it is all about His glory!

So I turned to Romans 8. A passage on the power of life in the Spirit. We are joint heirs in Christ and will certainly be glorified when our time has come. But right in the middle of Romans 8 is this often quoted passage in verses 8:28-30. Read it before Sunday. Pray over it and praise the Lord for these words. This is the gateway, as it were, from the doctrine of depravity to God’s sovereign will and election. You see, because God is sovereign, we have been rescued. In God’s eternal decree he predestined me to be adopted as his son through Christ Jesus in accordance with his pleasure and will.

What do I see in Romans 8:28-30 that has to do with God’s sovereignty? First off, God CAUSES all things to work together. God is the cause of all things. He brings all events to pass. Matthew 10:29 says that he even knows when a dirty bird falls from a tree. Acts 2:23 says that God purposed for the greatest event in world history to take place in the crucifixion of his son. He knew who, what, when, where and why they would do it. God was in control! He caused it.

I also notice that God has CALLED a certain people and that the apostles use of the word “those” indicates that this is a selected group of people according to God’s good purposes. I also notice that it is God who calls his people to their purpose (Phil. 2:12-13). God wills in us to act according to his good purposes. These few verses proclaim the sovereignty of God. God is control of all things. He understands us because he made us. Isn’t it awesome to know that God is in control of all of the details?

The apostle continues with a statement that so crushes any kind of Pelagian claim that we ought to be embarrassed to even suggest that there is something in us that chooses God without His grace and Spirit first enlightening us. Paul says through the Holy Spirit that those God foreknew, he also predestined. Predestination is simply God’s purpose for his moral creatures. Predestination not only secures the certainty of God’s purpose but also every event in the process of reaching that purpose. Check out King Ahab’s timely demise in I Kings 22. The narrative account says that a stray arrow killed Ahab. By Chance? FAT CHANCE! Later on in Scripture we find out that it was GOD who killed Ahab and not a “stray arrow”. Even “chance events” are not chance or fate at all. Rather, it is God who works to bring about his predestined purposes in his moral creatures.

And finally in Romans 8:30 we see a statement of God’s order of salvation. Before all time began, he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son (Eph. 1:4-5, II Tim. 1:9 etc). Those He predestined He also called in temporal history, that is in real time (Matt. 16:17, Titus 3:4-5, John 3:3) by the work of his free grace through the operation of His Holy Spirit. Those who were called where declared righteous (justified) and will certainly be glorified (Romans 8:18). What a picture of God’s work in salvation. No where do you find a person making the initial move toward God. It is always God who first calls and man responds. God is sovereign even in our salvation.

Of course these are just a few thoughts that I plan to develop over the next couple of sermons. Read Romans 8 this week. Pray over it. Study it. Let God’s Word reign in your life—it is a shield for all who take refuge in it.