He foreknew and predestined

[瑤翰 김요한]

He foreknew and predestined (Romans 8:29-30)

If you don't know much about predestination and say that everything is predestined, it becomes like Eastern fatalism.

Also, humans can make as many choices as they want, but they are offended when people say that they are limited.

That is why predestination and Arminian fight.

Then, some people make up the saying that it is God 100%  and  human 100%.

The words about predestination in the Bible are Romans 8:29-30 and 1 Corinthians 2:9, which say that it is all that God has prepared for those who love Him.

Ephesians 1:4-5 says that He chose us before the foundation of the world and predestined us according to His good pleasure.

In fact, no one can know whether we are predestined or not outside of Christ.

The eye does not see, the ear does not hear, and the human heart does not conceive (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Only the Holy Spirit reveals this fact to us.

The Holy Spirit teaches (1 Corinthians 2:10,13)

In fact, only when we go deeper into the words of Romans 8, that God predestined those whom He foreknew, do we understand that He foreknowledged and predestined us to conform to the image of His Son.

So, someone said that anyone could come in, and when they went in and turned around, they saw that there was a sign posted saying, “For the chosen only.”

No one knows predestination outside of Christ.

Q. What did God foreknow and predestinate to give us?

“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 brothers” (Romans 8:29)

A. "To be conform to the image of the Son."

For this purpose, God works together so that everything in life comes together for good, and in the end, good fortune and misfortune, prosperity and failure, are beneficial to us.

In theological terms, this is said to be predetermined or foreknowledge.

This means that these are only a limited number of people whom God knew in advance.

So, because the Book of Revelation is like a vote-counting situation for salvation, we see the fact that has already been accomplished as a revelation and know in advance whether I am in it or not, but we do not intervene there.

This means that it is limited to  those who become one with Christ in the Holy Spirit and are conformed to his image.

Parents also have a rough idea of what kind of people their children can become.

Likewise, it means that God predestined us in Christ.

We was confined to share the same form to be conformed to the image of the Son.

Before the creation of the world, it is before the human world. If you look at Chapter 1 of Genesis before the appearance of humans, God's blueprint was predetermined, and after Adam was created and fell, his son Jesus Christ came to the world and died on the cross, clearing away Adam's sins and trespasses. He sends the Holy Spirit to spread the gospel, so when people hear and believe, they receive the seal of the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 2:13)

In God's plan and providence to accomplish the task of conforming us to the image of His Son, all the good and bad things in our lives are added up and become good.

If we get irritated in times of hardship or adversity and ask God what's wrong, he will reply, 'I'm trying to make you like your brother.'

Who is my brother? If you ask, God says, ‘You don't know Jesus Christ?, My eldest Son?', right?

In all the ups and downs of our life's journey, as God calls us according to His will, if we just love Him, everything will come together to focus on being conformed to the image of His Son.

Therefore, there is no failure in God's dictionary. We need to know this.

We realize that the harsh rains and winds and difficult times in our lives were God's actions to remove our desires, destroy our ego, and give us the image of God's Son so that we could participate in eternal glory.

It's like playing a game of baduk with a baduk master, and you'll be overwhelmed by his skills.

When we are born again, our nature becomes the same as Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

The gap is significant, but there is no discrimination.

Although we do not imitate God's power and omnipotence, we inherit God's image and attributes of love.

This means that our entire life journey works together for good.

This is our amazing blessing.

"The firstborn", think of the firstborn as a prototype of a product.

We make a prototype and then manufacture it.

We are mass producing it.

Through the only begotten Son, we have become the many-begotten beings, becoming creatures one by one.

The Lord's word that if a grain of wheat falls into the ground and die, it will bear much fruit (John 12:24) has been and is still being fulfilled all over the world.

Q. What is the outcome of foreknowledge and predestination? 

“Moreover whom he did predeste, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:30)

A. To put it simply, it means that we will only make products like this.

He foreknew and predestined it.

So, He called them into Christ, justified (justified) those whom He called, and glorified those whom He justified.

But why is there no word here called sanctification in theology?

This is because the Bible was written from God's perspective.

This is because as soon as God begins, it is over.

Sanctification is our perspective.

When Paul explains the new covenant, he says that we are changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord.  (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

There is no word for sanctification between image and glory.

So, the Bible has parts written from God's perspective and parts written from a human perspective.

Therefore, it is God's perspective that he glorified those who were justified.

We use the theological term sanctification as a barometer to measure people's changes, but since God is the alpha and the omega and the beginning is the end, there is no stage called sanctification from God's perspective.

And to elaborate, theology is knowledge because it is a study that studies God from a human perspective.

However, faith is when the Holy Spirit makes you know God through revelation, so you see yourself from God's perspective, and then believe and look forward to God in Christ through the Bible and the Holy Spirit from your own perspective.

Written by Ptr. Yohan Kim.

Translated by  Nancy Chung

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