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JULY: The Kingdom of God

July 28

THE MECHANISM OF THE PROMISE

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.
Romans 8:28

We must look at what I choose to call the mechanism of the promise--the way in which it works. The apostle says that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." He says that we "know" this, that it is something that is well-known and acknowledged, something that to the Christian is self-evident. How is this so? The answer is partly doctrinal and partly a matter of experience.

The doctrinal answer starts at the end of our text--"to them who are the called according to his purpose." It continues at the end of the chapter. We know that all things work together for good to believers because their whole position is dependent upon God and His activity. Our salvation is God's work. Listen to the argument: "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. 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" (verses 29-30). There is nothing accidental or fortuitous or contingent about God's work. It is all planned and worked out from the beginning right until the end. In our experience it comes to us increasingly, but in the mind and purpose of God, it is all already perfect and entire. Nothing can frustrate it.

But it is not merely a matter of high doctrine. There is a fact that confirms it all: "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?" Is God, who actually delivered up His only Son to that cruel death on Calvary's cross for us, likely to allow anything to stand between us and His ultimate purpose for us? Impossible.

A Thought to Ponder
There is nothing accidental or fortuitous or contingent about God's work.

From Why Does God Allow War? pp. 122-123.



Today’s devo is taken from Walking with God Day by Day © 2003 by Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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