I’m thankful to be here tonight and to share in this time of ministry regarding the eternal purpose of God.
There are certain disadvantages in being the last one to speak, and I’m sure you’re all aware that both Stephen and Lance have spoken pretty well about eternal purpose for the Christian. But anyway, I’m very thankful that I was able to go last. I actually came back last week from Russia, and I’ve had a little jet lag that I’ve been trying to acclimate to. I’m here to share, and since most of my material has already been taken, I think there’s only one thing left to share regarding the eternal purpose.
I’d like to begin by sharing that tonight: if we could really see that the eternal purpose, at the heart of it, is the love of God.
The Lord has been touching my heart, even from this recent trip, concerning how much He really loves sinners—how much He has His eye on people who have no idea what’s going on.
Last Sunday, I was in Russia, and they sent me out on a two-hour drive with my brother, who was here, by the way. We went out to some town—I can’t remember the name of it—and we went to this meeting. There were thirty people there. It was a pretty lively meeting; they were charismatic, dancing and clapping. There were about four people there just standing there like this.
My assignment was to preach the gospel at the proper time, and so I did. I preached from John 6 on the bread of life. They gave an invitation, and these ones who had been standing there like this ended up getting saved.
Now, the interesting part is how much God loves people. It turns out that one man, who was quite a sinner and far from God, began to wrestle with God over some ensuing weeks. Saturday night, the night before I spoke, he did one of those “throwing open my Bible in desperation” moves. He threw open his Bible to John 6 and read, “I am the bread of life.”
Meanwhile, Saturday night, I was back in the dormitory where I was staying, and the Lord basically destroyed the message I wanted to give and turned me over to John 6. I thought, “You know, this is just another one of these mistakes I’m making.”
How much God loves people! Imagine what He had to do to get my stubborn mind to change about what to speak, and to have that man throw open his Bible—just by chance—to John 6, making him hungry for the bread of life that came down from heaven. He got saved, and his wife and their friends. Praise God. The Lord is faithful, you know?
The book of Romans is full of such messages—the gospel of the love of God—and that is sort of the area in which I’ll be sharing. I’d like for us to read some verses tonight, just to lay claim to a few areas in the book of Romans.
In a sense, we’ll deal with the gospel tonight, because that is the beginning exposure to the love of God in Christ Jesus.
In Romans 1, it might seem strange to you that Paul would say, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel.” But, you know, if we don’t embrace the cross, we become ashamed of the gospel. There are others who think the gospel is not sophisticated or intellectual. But Paul says in Romans 1:16:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel:
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is revealed the righteousness of God from faith unto faith:
as it is written, But the righteous shall live by faith.
Then let us read some wonderful gospel in Romans 3:21-26:
But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe;
for there is no distinction;
for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in His blood,
to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God;
for the showing, I say, of His righteousness at this present season:
that He might Himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.
And then Romans 5:1-11:
Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand;
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And not only so, but we also rejoice in our tribulations:
knowing that tribulation worketh stedfastness;
and stedfastness, approvedness;
and approvedness, hope:
and hope putteth not to shame;
because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us.
For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die:
for peradventure for the good man some one would even dare to die.
But God commendeth His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by His blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son,
much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life;
and not only so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
And Romans 8:28-30:
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good,
even to them that are called according to His purpose.
For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren:
and whom He foreordained, them He also called:
and whom He called, them He also justified:
and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
Lord, how we thank You that even something as profound as the eternal purpose of God was experienced, and is experienced, by us in the love of God. How we thank You that this is the great matter that wraps our hearts and keeps us in Christ Jesus, even as we are taken through from glory to glory on the road in Your eternal purpose.
Lord, open our hearts to understand and to see something of this Christian path laid before us, which was thought out before the foundation of the world. We thank You for this opportunity, but Lord, we need the help of the Holy Spirit. Give us clarity, quicken our hearts, and cause a response of love to well up within us. Lord, we are indeed Your debtors. We yield ourselves to You tonight. We ask that You would quicken and refresh everybody here tonight, that we might be alive to the love of God. We pray in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We just go back there to Romans 1:16-17: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Such a wonderful statement.
It makes me wonder why I don’t declare the gospel more. It seems that the gospel is a great fountain of release. When somebody declares the gospel, it releases the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. It releases faith in people even as they are hearing. It is amazing: from faith to faith. And it reveals the righteousness of God.
In other words, when the gospel is preached, God is vindicated as being right in everything He did, even in sending His Son to die on the cross. Well, I’m not surprised I don’t proclaim that more often. What a wonderful gospel—the releasing of the power!
Let’s talk for a minute about this releasing of the power of the love of God. When I sense this electricity in the air of God’s love, to me, that is the place I want to be.
That is why I enjoyed being in Russia. A few weeks ago, they had a crusade celebrating the tenth anniversary of this church. On Saturday night, the ice rink was filled with eight thousand people. They sang songs and everything, and it was almost time for the preacher to preach the gospel when somebody got up to sing a special song. All the electricity went off. The lights in the place—everything—went dark. No speakers, no microphones, nothing.
Finally, one of the brothers got up in front and yelled as loudly as he could, “Hooray!” Suddenly, you heard about four thousand Christian voices praying aloud at the same time. I couldn’t understand a word of it. It was tongues to me, but it was Russian, I’m sure.
For about two minutes they prayed, and then the electricity came back on. The evangelist came up there. I don’t think he spoke more than ten minutes. He drew the cords of love around the most desperate, sorry, broken bunch of people you have ever seen.
As prejudiced as I am, if I had stood out there and looked at those people—drug addicts, most of the men alcoholics, broken people, old babushkas, little old women over the hill—I might have thought, “What an audience. Give me some professors, some engineers.”
But that audience was cram full of these little people, these poor people, these needy people. And this evangelist said, “God loves you. Please come to Jesus. He alone can save you. We’ll help you. We’ll talk with you. We’ll pray with you.”
I was thinking to myself, “What are you saying?” But the love of God was spoken, and the response came. Hundreds of people came and got saved that night, as they had the night before and the night before that. In the midst of the darkness, there was this gospel light and some Christians willing to help those who were lost and needy.
It is the thing I like about Paul. Here in Romans, he starts with man’s need. That is exactly where Paul starts. And in that atmosphere you could sense the electricity of God. I remember this electricity down through the years whenever the power of God was there to save people. I love this electricity, don’t you? It just takes a couple of lost people and somebody willing to declare the gospel, and suddenly all kinds of things happen.
I don’t know if you heard about the great revival in 1964 in Hendersonville, North Carolina. A preacher came up from Florida, and he was a singing preacher, so he sang and preached all week. He pulled out his best sermons on Zacchaeus and the prodigal son. Nobody got saved all week—until the last night. One guy walked up and got saved. That was me.
Nobody else felt the electricity, I don’t guess, but boy, I sure did. I was being electrocuted. I’m so glad for that revival in 1964. I’m sorry you didn’t hear about it. It was a great time.
Wouldn’t you know, I was so crazy for God and everything that I soon felt, “Oh, I have to be a preacher.” So I trundled off to seminary.
I remember in 1969 going to the Billy Graham Crusade in Pittsburgh. Ernie Heil and I went as students to study evangelism and counsel at night. On Thursday night, it was pouring down rain in this outdoor auditorium—pouring down. The rain was almost horizontal.
They had a little piece of canvas, and Billy was under there with one guy playing the guitar. The people were drenched under umbrellas and holding things over their heads. It was terrible. The guy sang one song with the guitar, and Billy came up and said, “Look, this place is pouring down rain. We can’t have a crusade here tonight. But some of you have traveled for hours and hundreds of miles to do business with God. I’m going to ask you to come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord.”
A couple of hundred people came forward, because they were there to do business with God. The electricity was there. I just said, “My goodness, this is amazing.”
Then I got out of seminary and went up to New York. I went into New York City because there was this street evangelist, and I wanted to work with him and learn from him. He held gospel meetings right in Times Square—called Duffy Square back then.
We would sit down on the ground, and I had my guitar. There were twenty-five other young people. We were singing heavy songs like “This Little Light of Mine,” while thousands of people were coming out of the Broadway shows on their way to eat or whatever.
This fellow preached with a bullhorn. He would say, “Come on over here, and I’ll tell you how to get stoned on Jesus.” Then he took every stone in the Bible—the stone under Jacob’s head, the stone David used—and said it was all Jesus.
People were so arrested by this guy that they stopped. Every twenty minutes he would pull the string, and a few people got saved. Then he turned around and gave the same message. I heard that rock message I don’t know how many times, but every time the electricity of God’s love was there, and people coming out of the Broadway shows were getting saved.
After one o’clock in the morning, you could not preach there anymore with a bullhorn, so I was walking around witnessing with this brother. We came up to one man who was kind of drunk. My brother treated every drunk like a human being, by the way. He said, “Sir, I know you’re a little under the weather here, but I’d like to talk to you about Jesus.”
The man said, “Don’t you talk to me about Jesus.” My brother said, “But I can see you need a Savior.” The man said, “Don’t you talk to me, or I’ll cut you in pieces,” and he pulled out a big knife. I took a step back—bold man that I am.
My brother, without even catching his breath, said, “You cut me in a hundred pieces, and every one of those pieces will tell you, ‘Jesus loves you.’”
He stood right by that knife. That man fell down and got saved. If you just feel the electricity, you know what I’m saying. It was something so precious—the love of God.
Of course, you have sensed the same electricity when God has apprehended us toward something more, haven’t you? I remember being up at Randolph-Macon when I was just a preacher, and God hit me with His love. Stephen and Lance were speaking on various topics, and I was almost lifted out of my seat.
Because the gospel is not just the gospel of salvation. The gospel is the gospel of His Son. Romans 1:3 tells us that the gospel Paul was called to preach is concerning God’s Son. Again, Romans 1:9 says:
For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son.
I am convinced that if we preach the gospel of His Son, which begins with salvation and carries right on through into sonship, that electricity is there. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.
Because we are dealing with eternal purpose, at first I was tempted to move right over into Romans 8 and begin dealing with being called according to His purpose—namely, sonship. After all, that was Paul’s burden when he wrote this book.
But as I thought about it and prayed about it, it seemed the Lord said to me, “Why don’t you go with Paul’s wisdom and take us through this path of discovery into our eternal calling?” We do not see it full-blown from the moment we are saved. I have to confess, I certainly did not see it.
There is wisdom in Paul taking us at the starting point of our need and moving us from there, beyond and beyond, upward and upward, until we really discover these things. So, if you allow me, I would like to take that tack. Please be patient, those of you who want to get immediately to the heart of the thing in Romans 8—the whole section on sonship. We will get there, I promise you, but not tonight.
I was a sinner until I was twenty years old. From nineteen to twenty was a rough year for me because I had these Christian witnesses chasing after me.
Back in those days, we did not have the Four Spiritual Laws or any of those methods. There was one method used by all witnesses: the Roman Road. Do any of you remember the Roman Road? Some people remember this.
These brothers at the church my wife and I were attending came and told me the Roman Road. I almost had it memorized before I was saved.
It began with Romans 1:16-17: the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. They said, “You need to get saved.” I said, “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”
Then they would say, “Ah, but how about Romans 3:23?”
For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.
They would underscore that everybody had sinned, including me and including my wonderful wife. They really liked that verse.
Then they took me to Romans 6:23:
For the wages of sin is death;
but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
They said, “Now you see, you’re a sinner. You should die. That’s your wages. But the free gift is through Jesus Christ. You can be saved. Are you ready to pray?” I said, “No, no.”
Then they said, “When you’re ready to pray, let’s go to Romans 10:9-10.”
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord,
and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved:
for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Again, they asked, “Are you ready to do it now?” I said, “No, no.”
They said, “We’ve got one more for you: Romans 12:1.”
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual service.
Of course, they used that on me as a non-Christian. In other words, I was supposed to come and give God my body. “Are you ready for that?” No, I was not.
The night I got saved—which was actually the night before that crusade I mentioned—the Lord really did something in my life. The next day I went to my father-in-law, who was a wonderful Christian man, and said, “You know, something happened last night. I don’t know; something changed.”
He said, “Now, I want you to memorize Romans 10:9-10.” I asked, “What does that mean, confess?” He said, “That means you have to go to the front of the church and tell everybody you became a Christian.”
Well, that was their interpretation, and that is what I did. I was surprised when I turned around to tell everybody, because I was perfectly fine after the Lord had dealt with me. But I turned around and everybody was crying. They had all been praying for me for a whole year, and I did not know it.
The pastor was there, but I was the only guy who could talk in the church. I had to give myself the invitation and welcome myself into the church.
But you see, the Roman Road was good enough for me. It is powerful unto salvation. Romans is a very powerful tool of salvation because there is so much regarding sin and salvation. This is Paul’s version of “Come now, and let us reason together.”
Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow.
Paul spells it out. But Paul realizes that reasoning can only take you to the door. Then you have to see Jesus Christ by revelation.
Many very intelligent people found Romans to be the place of salvation. Augustine was burdened by his sins and could not find release. One day, while he was in a garden, he heard a child next door saying, “Take and read, take and read.” He opened his Bible to Romans 13:14:
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.
And he was saved.
Martin Luther was studying Romans in order to teach it at school. He stumbled on Romans 1:16-17, and God showed him that the just are saved by faith alone.
John Wesley, the unsuccessful American missionary, had been seeking God. He went to a little Moravian church in London. The man at the front was not even preaching; he was reading the introduction to Martin Luther’s commentary on Romans. That is how Wesley got saved. His heart was strangely warmed.
This book, Romans, is an amazing book.
When we look at Romans, Paul begins by showing that the righteousness of God is revealed first by His wrath because of all the sin in the world. Men are not only sinning in unbelief and disobedience, but they are in a downward spiral—greater and greater depravity.
God’s wrath is basically that He lifts His hand off man. What a story. God wants to and intends to have His hand on all men, but because of sin He takes His hand off. He gives them over to their sins and lets the wages of sin take their toll.
In Romans 1, we have the story of sinners getting worse and worse, separated from God and feeling His wrath. In Romans 2, Paul shows that God shows no partiality.
For there is no respect of persons with God.
The Jews are just as guilty as the Gentiles. The Gentiles are convicted by their conscience; the Jews are convicted by the law. But there is no partiality with God.
Then Romans 3:22-23 says:
For there is no distinction;
for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.
Paul is showing the complete state of ruin of all men. Even given the law, the Jews were unbelieving and disobedient. Even given their father Abraham, faith was not passed along genetically. Even given the humility of Moses and the law, the Jews were still disobedient and unbelieving. All have sinned. There is no distinction.
This is our starting point. This is where God has to get us. I am amazed, brothers and sisters, when dealing with young people, that many Christian young people actually feel separated from God. They are convicted of their sins. They have some unconfessed sin, or they are dealing with something in their life. This is where they are.
We can talk to them about adoption and sonship, but right now they feel very far from God. Sometimes we have a gospel meeting, and I see a young person raise their hand even though I know they have been a Christian for five years. I wonder why they are doing that. It is because they still sense that they are separated from God. They are struggling in their dear little hearts.
You do not really have to tell people they are sinners, in one sense, but Paul says, “I have to convince you of this.” You need to see it by revelation.
Isn’t it amazing that sometimes, after we have been Christians for five years, we suddenly realize what real sinners we are? I was saved, in a sense, as a favor to God because I thought I was pretty good. But there was a dealing that came a few years later, and boy, I really hit the skids when I saw the depth of pride. It is like a bottomless pit.
Every Christian, if they are going to be founded upon justification by faith, has to see the desperation of their own position. Paul rubs our noses in it. There can be no doubt about the fact that we are all sinners. There is none righteous, no, not one. Our tongues are vicious, our actions are cruel, and the list goes on and on.
Paul starts with the need. He brings us under conviction. He makes us aware of the separation. All of that brings us to Romans 3:21.
Now the righteousness of God is revealed in justification by faith through Christ. Here comes that first revelation, and it is a revelation of the love of God: the cross of Calvary. Jesus died on the cross for me.
When I saw how sinful I was, I was so happy that Jesus loved me and died for me. That was my first touch of the eternal purpose of God. The eternal purpose of God is touched when you really touch the depths of God’s love. I touched it at Calvary, on April 1, 1964—April Fools’ Day. I knew Jesus loved me, and I sure was glad because I knew that I was a sinner.
I was justified. I was redeemed. He was satisfied. He loved me. And to realize by faith—that was the second great thing. Number one, I saw that God loved me and Jesus died for me. Number two, I had faith to obey.
Paul uses this expression in Romans: “the obedience of faith.”
Through whom we received grace and apostleship,
unto obedience of faith among all the nations, for His name’s sake.
I had the faith to obey. At that point, I had no idea that faith was given to me as a gift of grace, by election. To me, it was my action. He said, “Whosoever believeth,” and I said, “Here I go. I believe.” I got saved by the grace of God through faith, just as the Bible said.
Romans 4 is all about Abraham, the father of faith, and how he was justified by faith. I said, “You know what? I’m just like Abraham.” He believed; God said, “You’re righteous.” I believed; God said, “You’re righteous.” Praise God. This is wonderful. I am a child of God, just like Abraham.
So I began to take steps of obedience—reading my Bible, getting rid of outward sins, and doing those things. What a wonderful time in my life.
Romans 5 was the first stopping place:
Being therefore justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand;
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
I could say, “Abba,” and He would say, “Dana.” I knew I was saved, and I had peace with God. I was standing in grace. I was feeling forgiveness. I was praying prayers. God was answering prayers.
Within that year, my father got saved, my mother got saved, my brother got saved, and my sister got saved. You just pray, and it is magic. Jesus loves me. He listens to me. He answers my prayers. This was amazing stuff going on.
To be in this place of peace and in this grace room was like a great buffet. You need some peace? Right over here. Need some love? Right over here. Need some direction? Open your Bible—right over there. This is grace: God’s grace.
There were little cracks into eternity. Romans 5:2 says that we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We are enjoying all the grace of God, but there is a little window—the glory window. You look through that window and say, “There is something better. There is something out there. There is something eternal.” I had the hope of glory. I thought mainly, “I’m going to heaven,” but eternity was coming through the window just a little bit.
At the end of Romans 5, we learn that we are no longer in Adam; we are now in Christ. We are a new creation. Old things have passed away; all things have become new. I understood that I was in the church, among brothers and sisters. I thought the church in which I got saved was perfect—until after I got saved. Suddenly, there were problems and splits and all kinds of things going on. I had no idea. God had covered my eyes.
All I saw was that we were one and that we were the church. I knew I was in something big, something eternal, something upward, though I had no idea what it really was.
I had no idea He had chosen me before the foundation of the world. I had no idea there was an eternal plan. I thought it was being etched out day by day, depending on whether I obeyed or not.
Actually, I had no idea that this whole thing was wrapped up in a Person. I knew Jesus was about five foot six and that He was my Savior. I had no idea He was humongous—the universal Christ. I just thought He was my Friend.
So there we are at this first stage: loved by God, feeling the love of God, and sensing little cracks of glory. Of course, there is going to be a second episode. Next time I share, Lord willing, we will go through Romans 6, 7, and 8—that season of discipline in my life.
Nothing in my salvation contract said I was going to have to go through Romans 6, 7, and 8. I was just happy to be in the grace room. I did not know that sometimes He took the food away and sent me through the tribulation tunnel.
You take His yoke and say, “Sure, Jesus.” Then, oh man, do we learn from Him—about ourselves, first of all. We take a stand by faith. We reckon the old man dead. We present our bodies. Then we start collapsing and failing because of the flesh. “I, I, I”—always in the way. What is going on here?
Because you love Him so much, you want to serve Him. Yet every time you serve Him, you do a terrible job and make an awful mistake. You wonder, “Why? Are You tricking me?” But it is worth the whole thing to discover the mystery: Christ in me, the hope of glory.
When I began to discover that Christ lives in me, that it is not my life or my energy but His life—oh, this was wonderful. I did not know that at stage one, sitting in the grace room. I thought the grace room was it. You stand on the bottom of the rocket ship and just eat.
But because you love God, you want to serve God. You put His yoke on, and the next thing you know, you are going through things and discovering this mystery: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Eventually, more and more, you learn the life of abiding. You begin to understand that some of these things were planned in your life. “All things working together”—what is going on here?
Then the curtain opens, and eventually we realize that we are chosen of God, that we render to Him reasonable service, and that we are elected as heirs. We give it all away. We serve Him and suffer. Stage three. Are you there yet? The place got very quiet.
But the thing I am seeing again and again is this: the Lord opens these things to us progressively. He lets us be where we are in stage one, and He loves us. Then we go on to stage two, and He loves us. Stage three, and that love never lets us go.
Wherever you are, brother, sister, young person—maybe you are still being established in the foundations of the gospel in Romans 3—praise God. He loves you. He takes care of you. These are the things we learn.
When we look at Romans, we see Paul was burdened with laying a proper foundation. He wrote Romans at the zenith of his ministry and freedom. He had been serving in Ephesus for three years, and he was collecting a contribution for Jerusalem. During this period, we believe he wrote Romans regarding his intention to go to Rome.
He had never been there. He knew many workers and brothers and sisters there, but he had never been there. Paul, being apostolic, was burdened to lay a good foundation.
We cannot come to a realization of sonship unless the foundation of salvation is firmly established in us: His finished work, what it has done for us, and how we stand in the grace of God.
How was the church in Rome started? We do not really know. Jesus was building His church. Probably some saints visiting from Rome on the day of Pentecost got saved, went back, and began to meet. Later, Gentiles began meeting with Jewish believers. Priscilla and Aquila eventually moved back to Rome. When you read the end of Romans, you see Latin names, Greek names, and Jewish names.
This was a church of many Christians, but we do not know which apostle laid the foundation. Maybe it just happened. Many times, the church just happens by the grace of Jesus Christ. Paul felt the need to lay a foundation regarding justification by faith in a step-by-step way.
The Romans, as a culture, understood jurisprudence. They understood justice. The justice and righteousness of this whole salvation matter needed to be clearly spelled out. Jewish believers also had a legal understanding that needed to be satisfied scripturally.
Paul would not jump into some revelation of sonship and God’s eternal purpose without laying the foundation in the Old Testament Scriptures and clearly spelling the matter out for everybody to see.
He did this in a painstaking way. He asked a lot of questions. When you read Romans, he is asking rhetorical questions all the time: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” No, no, no. He wants people to understand the reasoning behind this whole thing.
Of course, he is writing because he is burdened that these Christians come into sonship and maturity. They were Christians, whatever the original foundation was. Yet what happens to every Christian is that, after you have been a Christian for a while, you start asking, “Why am I saved?”
The answer that usually lasts about five years is, “You are saved to serve.” That keeps people busy for about five years, running around doing stuff. That is good, and the Lord uses that. But eventually, the question comes back: “No, wait a minute. Why am I saved?”
At that juncture, it is important to understand the fuller revelation of God’s eternal purpose. You become confused by the fact that you are a Christian and yet are going through inexplicable suffering. “All things working together for good” do not seem very good to you. They will not seem good until we understand there is a larger purpose.
At a more intuitive level, you find yourself groaning with dissatisfaction. “I should be happy. I am a Christian. I am saved under the blood of the Lamb. I worship God. I read the Bible. But I am groaning. There is something more. I am dissatisfied. I am incomplete. What is this?”
Until we enter into the groanings of sonship with understanding, these things become confusing. Paul lays out the doctrine of salvation very clearly, and then he comes to Romans 8 and says that, in eternity, there is one purpose toward which everything is working out: the glory of the Son.
People often quote Romans 8:28:
And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good,
even to them that are called according to His purpose.
Amen. There is no coincidence for such a person. But do not think some sinner can just say, “It will all work together for good. Every cloud has a silver lining.” No, no. That is pop psychology, not the Word of God.
The aimless wanderings of disobedient, faithless people are not working together, except as God may use those things to draw them into the net of His salvation. But in eternity there is one single purpose: the glory of His Son. The glory of the Son will only be fulfilled when many sons are brought to glory with Him. That is where you and I come in.
Already, the claim of salvation Paul has made in his gospel raises a serious issue: the righteousness of God. How can God be just and the Justifier of all who believe in Him?
Romans 3:26 says:
That He might Himself be just,
and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.
How can God be just? If God is just, what should He do? He should judge everybody. The wages of sin is death. It does not seem fair that somebody can simply say, “I believe in Jesus,” and be accepted. Wait a minute.
Another question is this: if God made the law the standard of righteousness, how can He save people apart from the law? The Jews were trying to pursue righteousness by keeping the rules. Then suddenly God saves people who simply come to Jesus. They are not circumcised, not clean, not kosher, and they do not observe the feasts. Does that sound just?
Then there is the question of election. Is election inherently just? “God, number six, you are in trouble. Number seven, you go to heaven.” What is just about that? It sounds inherently unjust.
Romans 9:30-31 says:
That Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness,
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith:
but Israel, following after a law of righteousness,
did not arrive at that law.
The Gentiles were not even pursuing righteousness, and they got it. The Jews were pursuing it like crazy, and they did not get it. “That is not fair.”
The beginning of sin is the insinuation that God is not fair. These questions are the reasoning of the unrevealed mind. But Paul says this would be an insoluble problem except for the cross of Jesus Christ.
In the cross of Jesus Christ, every bit of God’s righteousness is exonerated and justified. In the cross, God is seen to be both just and the Justifier.
Jesus Christ dying on the cross and being raised again reveals that God was right. Man’s reasoning cannot come to that conclusion. Man’s reasoning still says, “That is unfair.” But when somebody sees by revelation, they say, “That is fair.”
The key is to see Jesus Christ on the cross. It is the work of the cross that vindicates God’s righteousness. God has to judge sin. But if God is going to be the Justifier—that is, the Forgiver—how is He going to do that unless He pays the price? How can God both condemn and judge, and also pay the price? In Jesus Christ, that is exactly what He did.
Romans 3:24-25 describes this in threefold fashion.
First, we are “justified as a gift by His grace.” Justification is a legal term. We have been forgiven and acquitted by the grace of God because Jesus paid the price the law required. This satisfied the law. God is just and the Justifier.
Second, there is “the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” This satisfied the ownership problem. Sin owned us. We were slaves to sin until Jesus’ precious blood bought us to Himself. He says, “I own him now.” The devil no longer owns us. Sin no longer owns us. We are slaves of Jesus. Praise God.
Third, God displayed Christ publicly “as a propitiation in His blood through faith.” This satisfied God’s holiness. This was the atonement accomplished through Jesus’ blood. This was the satisfaction of God. This ended the enmity between God and man. This was peace. This was atonement.
So God can be just and the Justifier. When we see Jesus upon the cross, we see the righteousness of God revealed. When somebody accuses God of being unfair, point them to Jesus. If they see Jesus, they will see that God was right.
At the end of Romans 5, Paul says that God not only saved us, justified us, redeemed us, and made propitiation for us, but He took us out of Adam and put us into the last Adam. He began a whole new race of people. He started us all over again. We are a whole new creation.
What a gospel of the love of God. What a job well done. This is not a partial salvation; it is a full salvation. We have been transferred out of darkness into His light. The whole thing has been changed for us as Christians.
What is the basis of it all? What is behind the whole thing? The love of God—the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 5:6 says:
For while we were yet weak, in due season Christ died for the ungodly.
We were helpless. Romans 1 and 2 should leave us with the conclusion that we are helpless. We cannot get out of that cycle.
Then Romans 5:8 says:
But God commendeth His own love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Not just helpless, but sinners—sinning sinners, people who wanted to sin. Yet He demonstrated His love, and He died for us while we were sinners.
And Romans 5:10 says that while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. If this is not love, I do not know what is: God’s love to man, seen in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There is that song, At Calvary:
Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!
Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span
At Calvary!
That gospel song speaks of the gulf between man and God, bridged by Jesus at Calvary. But there are even greater gulfs bridged when Jesus died and rose again.
Think about the gulf between God’s eternal plan for us and actually getting us there. Let me make it more personal: the gulf between your calling as a son and where you are now.
Only Calvary bridges that. Only the finished work of Christ can bring us into full, responsible, workable sonship, where we are conformed to the image of the Son of God. There is a gulf. Do you believe Calvary is that which can close that gap, by the work of the Holy Spirit working the cross into us?
When somebody is saved, they are a son. They are just a babe; they are just a child. But they are already a son.
When you are saved, eternity has come down to earth and touched you with the love of God. We may not yet understand fully what has happened, but we are saved. We know that Jesus loves us. We call, “Abba, Father.” We have entered into something that is the beginning of the eternal purpose of God.
I believe the gospel is the beginning of the eternal purpose of God, and I do not want to leave it out of the whole thing. If we just talk about Romans 8 and do not cover the first part, we might give somebody the misunderstanding that gospel stuff is for kindergarten and that sonship is the important thing.
I am telling you, when you get saved, you are a son. If you live in this response called the obedience of faith, you are living as a son. When you sense the love of God pouring through your heart and respond back to God in love, even as a new child of God, you are a son acting like a son and moving toward God’s eternal purpose.
Let us start right there. Let us not say that a new believer does not have a clue. We have much more to learn, but the more I travel, the more I see, and the more I am impressed by the first love of His children.
Again, I recently went to Russia, and I saw young believers with first love. Can I say this? We are not really effectually realizing sonship unless we have that first love. We can talk the doctrine, but if we do not have first love, we have nothing.
I was so humbled by meeting different brothers and sisters. I met a brother and asked, “How are you doing? How long have you been out of Bible school?” They go to Bible school for one year. He said, “I’ve been out three years.”
I asked, “What have you been doing?” He said, “I went out to a remote village. I rented a home. I began to preach the gospel and bring people into the home.”
I said, “So you have been there three years?” He said, “Yes. Now I have eight houses. We have three hundred and fifty people.”
When the house gets full, they rent another house in the next town. They preach the gospel, people get saved, and they minister to and help them. Then somebody in that group is told, “Okay, now you keep preaching the gospel here, and I’m going to go over there.”
This brother had been a Christian five years.
All he does is love the Lord Jesus with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. He knows nothing of the kingdom of God, but he is the kingdom of God working out. He is a son, and Jesus is not ashamed to call him His brother.
Because he has first love.
In bringing many sons to glory, this is where He has to start: saving us, loving us, and seeing whether we will respond back to Him in total love.
Brothers and sisters, my final plea is very simple: first love is a sign of sonship.
Dear brothers and sisters, I am sorry if I have ever conveyed the idea that, if you are just a brand-new Christian, you are worthless to God. You are His son. He is pouring out His love on you. Are you pouring out your love back to Him? Do you not know that He will lead you?
When I look at people whom I feel are really touching this purpose of calling and sonship, every one of them started out as a Jesus lover. They were working for Jesus, burning up the field. They were either catching or mending, but they loved Jesus. You could not take that away from them.
They made mistakes. They were on fire. They were like those foxes tied together by Samson, burning up all kinds of things. But they did it out of love for Jesus.
I am telling you, if we do not have real first love for Jesus, we will never come into that sonship. Forget about it. That is all just talk.
We need to start right now. Young people, love Jesus with all your heart. Tell people about Jesus. Share that gospel, and watch faith come alive. Feel that electricity in the air when you talk about Jesus, and you will see what I am talking about.
Without this first love, why even carry on? Why talk about theory that we will never get to? This is the beginning. We are sons of God. Do we act like it? Do we love Him? Do we serve Him? Do we worship Him?
I am getting older, as you can see. We are almost all gray-haired now. But even when I listen to some of these young people’s songs, and they are in a different mode than I am used to, when I hear people wanting to get back to the heart of worship, I hear something: real love.
I am burdened for the young people that you do not fall away or leave your first love and become mature, sardonic know-it-alls. We need to serve God and love God with all our heart.
Do you not know God will direct such a person? Do you not know God will discipline such a person? Do you not know the Lord will bring that person through the season of learning that Christ is their life?
But if you are not going anywhere, if you are not loving Him with all your heart, there is no room to work.
This is our starting place, dear brothers and sisters. Do not just be normal Christians. We have enough of them.
If we want to see the Lord do what He wants to do in our day, we need to start out as sons of God. I have touched eternity when I touch the love of God. I love Him, and I will follow Him all the way up into the heavens.
That is what we need to say: “I need to love the Lord.”
Do not be ashamed of the gospel. Exercise the gospel. I am so thankful for missionaries—people who, for years, have been sharing the gospel, sharing the gospel, sharing the gospel. What I find is that they are also becoming sons and sons and sons. They are learning the lessons of God’s love. They are going more deeply into it.
We need understanding about God’s purpose. God brings us to the place where we say, “God, give me understanding,” and then He opens it up. But all in its time. Are we being faithful right now?
Do not say, “I am nothing now, but I am going to be a son.” If you are a son of God, are you a son of the kingdom? Are you one of those people Jesus plants? You are the good wheat, the sons of the kingdom.
May that be our desire tonight. If the Lord comes beside us and is not ashamed to call us brethren, surely He will continue to open up who He is to us, reveal more and more of who He is, and lead us into this sonship recorded in Romans 8.
The Lord help us. Let us pray.
Lord, somehow we believe that in this last day, as You are surely preparing and maturing sons, preparing Your bride, perfecting Your church, and accomplishing Your will in Christ, surely in this day You are calling a people to be lovers of You.
Oh Lord, I pray that You will remove from us that sense of wise restraint and give us a desire just to be all for Jesus, all for Jesus.
Oh Lord, restore our hearts if we have gotten down the road and somehow left the first love, finding ourselves just talking about sonship. Oh Lord, we want to be seen as Your sons because all we do is talk about You.
Lord, forgive us where so much of our thoughts have been more cerebral than heartfelt.
Lord, we know everybody in this room has been called according to a purpose that we have yet to discover fully. But, oh Lord, You have called us all already. Help us to be those who respond and follow in the obedience of faith.
Help us to see the gospel and Your righteousness declared, and to move in such a way that You can continue to work, develop, and mature us. Oh Lord, bring us as Christians into the fullness of Your eternal purpose. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.