Peter Barnes | Romans 8:29
SERMON NOTES
FIVE LINKS IN THE CHAIN OF SALVATION, part 1
(Romans 8:29)
– verses 29-30 flow from verse 28; in 1592 William Perkins wrote The Golden Chaine
1. God foreknew His people.
– not just in the sense that He foreknows everything
– Gen.18:19; Amos 3:2; Rom.11:2; hence 1 John 4:19
2. God predestined His people.
– J. C. O’Neill: ‘Few, if any, Christians now believe this doctrine, and no new confession of faith is likely to restate it.’ Such is the state of unbelief in the Church!
– Eph.1:4-5; Matt.11:25-27
– God seeks for us because nobody seeks for God (Rom.3:11)
3. The goal of election is conformity to Jesus.
– No fatalism, but predestination to holiness (cf. Eph.1:4)
– this is here and now (2 Cor.3:138)
– and fulfilled in the new heaven and new earth (Rom.6:5; Phil.3:21); we are co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17).