Romans 8:28-29
26/03/18 04:05
SEE THE CONTEXT - Surrounding Text
IMAGE OF CHRIST
Romans 8:28-29 (NKJV) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
It never fails that I hear "God works all things out for good". That statement comes from our reading today. When we move to verse twenty-nine we see the word "For". When we see this word we understand that we are being told WHY all things work together for good; and, WHAT that good is.
The reason that all things work together for good to those who worship God is that God wants to conform us to the image of His Son. The reason is not for us to live a comfortable and carefree life. In fact, when you look at the context of this statement Paul is actually talking about how our sufferings work together for us to be more in the image of Christ. Does that not make sense? The image of the Messiah is one who gave up what He had, lived in poverty, was persecuted by religious, taken advantage of by the world, lived a life that put God first and showed the character of God by putting others before Himself; and, I fear that Americans too often try to portray Jesus by living in comfort, without sacrifice, doing anything we can to protect ourselves, not allowing anyone to take advantage of us, avoiding those who do and those who annoy us, while putting the pleasures and riches of this world first in our life because we feel we need to live life to it's fullest - as if this is life and there is nothing better (or worse) after.
IMAGE OF CHRIST
Romans 8:28-29 (NKJV) And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
It never fails that I hear "God works all things out for good". That statement comes from our reading today. When we move to verse twenty-nine we see the word "For". When we see this word we understand that we are being told WHY all things work together for good; and, WHAT that good is.
The reason that all things work together for good to those who worship God is that God wants to conform us to the image of His Son. The reason is not for us to live a comfortable and carefree life. In fact, when you look at the context of this statement Paul is actually talking about how our sufferings work together for us to be more in the image of Christ. Does that not make sense? The image of the Messiah is one who gave up what He had, lived in poverty, was persecuted by religious, taken advantage of by the world, lived a life that put God first and showed the character of God by putting others before Himself; and, I fear that Americans too often try to portray Jesus by living in comfort, without sacrifice, doing anything we can to protect ourselves, not allowing anyone to take advantage of us, avoiding those who do and those who annoy us, while putting the pleasures and riches of this world first in our life because we feel we need to live life to it's fullest - as if this is life and there is nothing better (or worse) after.
