Unfathomable Riches of Christ - In Christ, as location and means
Vern Peterman · Mar 18, 2018
Unfathomable Riches of Christ, No. 10
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926199134265

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, so keeping up with the more recent pattern here, we're trying to hold the handout down to about two pages here. I think we went over by half a page last week. But trying to keep it so that we don't cover quite as much material, but we hopefully cover it in the actual classroom.

So one of the things we've said, and we continue on this Sunday, is during the month of March we have these four topics, In Christ, Position and Condition, on the 4th, last Sunday on the 11th, In Christ, Position and Possessions, and to that we also add the things to which we are predestined, and then thirdly we have In Christ as Location and Means, And so that's what we'll be covering today.

Next Sunday, which we traditionally call Palm Sunday, in Christ, redeemed and forgiven, so as to be justified. Now, so we call, why do we call next Sunday Palm Sunday? They put down palm branches when the Lord gave them to Jesus. Yeah, in other words, this is what's often called the triumphal entry, and they put down palm branches, at least as recorded in actually one location, I at one point in time proposed Donkey Sunday.

There's a few laughs and snickers at that. Actually, the donkeys are mentioned nine times and the palms are mentioned once. If scripture boasts, then it's Donkey Sunday. But anyway, we'll not press that point. It's a little easier to have palm trees decorating the place than it is donkeys sitting on the sidewalk. So, any of you ever hung around donkeys? I mean, they're really kind of entertaining critters, you know. So, anyway. So, we're going through this series here.

As we have been going through this and introducing the unfathomable riches of Christ, one of the things we point out here is we look at in Christ and related terms in Ephesians 1.3-14, that is in the Greek, one long sentence. In our English translations, we can't handle that kind of a long sentence, so it is typically broken up in our English translations into multiple sentences. As Paul wrote it, it was one sentence.

But point one is the location is literally in the heavenlies, or implied in the heavenly places. So some of your translations will say, in the heavenly places, and they put an italics in places. It is implied, but not stated. It's literally in the heavenlies. And that's the place where God dwells and from which his angels work and are sent. And by the way, in the heavenly places, is that place going to be around forever? I see. Which is always fascinating, right?

So what's going to happen to the present heaven? It's going to be gone along with this present heavens and earth, right? And there will be a new heaven and a new earth And that's described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. The destruction of it is talked about in 2 Peter. The destruction of the present heavens and earth.

So, at any rate, in the heavenlies, in the heavenly places, is a place where God dwells and from which his angels work on our sin. But let's ask, in the new heavens and new earth, where will God dwell? on earth, right? And God and the Lamb will be the temple and the lamp, the light source. Imagine we have the sunlight streaming through the windows, right? Imagine we have walls where the light comes through and no sunlight. because God is the source of light in the heavens and the earth.

And then further, the location in Ephesians 1.3 is also personal in Christ. So it's location in terms of place, but it's also describing location in terms of person in Christ. So let's read through.

You have Ephesians 1.3-14. And I've slightly edited it to make it one long run-on sentence. And I've also done some bolding and underlining here to talk about, you know, in Christ and in him and in whom and things like that. So, let's read through it with that in mind, so you can follow along with me in the handout.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise and the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, According to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us, and all wisdom and insight He made known to us, the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens, and things on the earth, in Him also we have obtained an inheritance. having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory.

One sentence. Stunning, right? Okay. What are some of the things that you observe as we went through that and as you look at it? And what are some of the things that you observe as you look at that passage? So repeatedly, we try to make a focus on it, in Him, in Christ, in Him, in Christ. So it goes continuously like that.

The in Christ statements in the book of Ephesians, 36 times, and actually a few more times if you include some near statements There's three more. So close to 40 times just in the six chapters in the book of Ephesians. So this is emphasized immensely, greatly. In Christ and equivalent statements are 164 times in the Holy Testament, with a great number of them just in these six chapters.

Alright, so you see in him, is there anything else that you see repeatedly there? Or anything you observe just reading through the passage? His kindness, his grace, his blessings. Yeah, so one of the things, you see God's character come out. You see God's character come out.

And imagine, here are these Ephesians, until Paul's Second missionary journey, where he came into Ephesus, the pagan mindset had the plurality of gods, and all the gods had different characteristics, but none of them was like this. None of them was like this. Was a god ever kind to you? No, and especially if you were an enemy, right? So for God to be kind to you, for God to love you, for God to bless you, that idea was at very least rare among the pagan gods. So here you have a God of very different character. talks about, even in here, in kindness, the riches of his grace.

And those kinds of terms are not done just with the first chapter. Yeah. And everything he did, his death and everything, was all for us, not for him. Yeah. So this is an exceedingly great point. It was for us that he did these things. And did he do it because we were just awfully cute and just really nice people?

No. We were sinners. We were alienated, as he's going to bring out in chapter 2. We were alienated. There wasn't any reason, based on our merit and our character and our accomplishments, there wasn't any reason for him to do that. based on who we were and what we did. Yes? Because of sin we were his enemies. Yeah.

If we were to say, well, what do these people deserve? One of the big ploys in advertising is to tell you you deserve this and deserve that. Which is of course a lie, because then why aren't they giving it to you free? Whatever they're telling you you deserve, then you ought to be given it free. But none of that's free, and they use the word deserve. You deserve it, but they're not giving anything away. At all. Ever.

Right? You're going to buy it. Pardon? You're going to buy it. Yeah, you're going to buy it. And so you deserve it is a ploy. Right? Going through business school, you know, I took a course in advertising and I just kind of shook my head because an awful lot of it really is about deception, right? And one of those things is you deserve this and you deserve that. Reality, with respect to God, what do we deserve? We deserve death and condemnation, right? That's all we deserve. so that you deserve a break today, at which leg? Right?

So, all the things that you see here come out of, they express God's character, don't they? Here is a God who blesses you. Here is a God who has kindness towards you. Here is a God who has, it talks about his character expressed. The riches And one of the ways we bring that out is multiple magnitudes of wealth of His grace. God's not wimpy skimpy in grace. God's not just barely sufficient. It's multiple magnitudes of wealth of grace.

Stan? I was just going to say, the poetry is interesting. I looked up M and it says fixed. position, and it also says rest. So let's think about that, and this is something certainly worth exploring. We say in Christ, is it easy to say? Yeah, it's easy to say, easy to spell. Even in the Greek, it's not all that difficult. In Christos. As you look at it, it's not that difficult. But then when you start saying, well wait a minute, what does that mean?

It is a, in Christ we have is permanent. And in Christ is permanent. And so there is never a threatened, these are phenomenal statements of the unfathomable riches we have in Christ. There is never a place that says, you know, you better be real careful or you're going to be unseated with Christ. You better watch your P's and Q's, which stands for planks and quarts, but anyway, you better watch your P's and Q's or you're going to lose having been identified with Christ and His crucifixion.

But you must also bring in the fact that God knew about how we would act before the earth was made. Yeah, God did not have Christ die on the cross for our sins centuries before we were born, and then slap his forehead and say, what was I thinking? He doesn't do that, right? He has chosen us from before the foundation of the world. And so what was he thinking? He was thinking about us in Christ. If you think about it, I'm not choosable otherwise. I'm not choosable otherwise except in Christ. There's no basis in myself for why God would even choose me. We often think of the location in Christ, but there's two thoughts that sort of stand out in this passage.

Who's the actor? It's God the Father, by means of or in the location of Christ, so that they are cooperating in this thing. Who tells us about it? The Holy Spirit does. If you look at this and say, okay, what's the Father's place? The Father is the one who is credited here and is the one who is seen as the one taking action. Making decisions, taking action.

And so he is given credit, and we see that it is the position in Christ, repeatedly, in Christ, in Him, in whom, in the Beloved, etc. And what do we see at the end there? You are sealed in Him, in whom? In Christ, with the Holy Spirit of promise. We have the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all involved in your blessings. And the father takes action and is the one who initiates action.

Yes? is because in the Old Testament God said that they were not going to share in His rest because they lacked faith. So, this is Paul saying, all believers, those with faith, receive this position, which includes rest, fixed, it's rest, and permanent. Which they didn't have in the Old Testament because they didn't have faith.

It is very common these days And it has been for centuries for people to kind of blur the church and Israel, and in some cases even replace Israel with the church. People will talk about, oh, the kingdom, and by that they mean not the coming kingdom, but by that they mean the church is the kingdom. And when they do so, they're often ignorant of the history of that terminology.

John Chrysostom, who said many good things, this is a few centuries after the New Testament era, but John Chrysostom said many good things, but he also says, you know, God hates the Jews, and if you're a good Christian, you will too. Why? And this teaching was carried on into the Catholic Church and many of the Reformed churches, So this teaching was carried on, and the idea is that Christ was born king of the Jews, but they killed him. So now he's the king of the church.

So that's one of the reasons why you'll see us being careful about using the word king, for example, in our language. And we'll use the word kingdom carefully. We'll be careful about what we will sing about. You might have noticed that. Occasionally we'll even tweak the words that we use. And it's because the understanding there needs to be clear.

What is the biblical teaching on that? And what is not biblical? So, as we come into this, one of the things that this does is it credits the Father. for the blessings. It says that the Father is the one who is to be credited because He took action. And it is summarized, He is the one who blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

Then, one of the things we also see is Jesus repeatedly, and we have some quotes in the last line there, and I put etc. John 5.23.26.37, John 6.44.57, on and on and on. Jesus says, the Father who sent me. And Jesus would repeatedly say, I do nothing except what the Father tells me to do, and I say nothing but what the Father tells me to say. The Father is given credit for these things accomplished in Christ.

And so that's repeated. Stan? I think it's interesting also, it's just automatic for Jesus. I mean, he doesn't even think about it. He voluntarily does all this without ever questioning. And going to the cross, even though it was such a struggle for him, it was still voluntary. This whole thing is just voluntary.

Yes, that's right. Was anyone coerced into what they did? No. No. You look at the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, none of them were said, well, okay, I guess so. There wasn't any of that, right? And so yes, it's voluntary as an act of will on the part of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

And yeah, this is astounding. You think about it, even here at Holly Hills, basically it's all voluntary. We're gathering voluntarily. You didn't have a policeman come and tap you on the shoulder and say, hey, get up, you've got to go to church today. So yeah, these things were all voluntarily done by the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. Plus, when did the volunteering take place?

Before the foundation appeared. Before God said, let there be light. We read Genesis 1, and this is a wonderful revelation regarding how things were made and created. But this volunteering, using that term, took place before God said, let there be light.

I'm assuming we're there at the creation. I think that's an assumption. If it's true, one of the phrases that sticks in my mind in the reading that I've done is, he says to the angels, come on over here, I'm going to show you, I'm going to make something. And they answered, something?

With regard to the angels, scripture is not explicit as to when the angels were created. The Jews have a tradition that I'm not sure is anything we can pin anything on. The Book of Job does say that the angels, called the morning stars, sang together. So they were at least created very early, early enough to have seen. Well, building on that, in the future, is he going to say to us, come on over here and watch me burn up the heavens and the earth and going to make something new? And by the way, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, we're going to judge angels.

You ready for that? Yeah, my thought is like, whoa, okay, I'm not ready for it now. But that is kind of a sobering thought. Yes? I was thinking, it's repeated, like you said, In him, in Christ, and so on. And not only here, but throughout the New Testament anyway. There have been times when I've been talking or listened to people, like little people that are discussing religion or whatever.

And we should be inclusive. You know, just let's co-exist and I'll get along and all that. Okay, so if we do that, what we do is we end up putting Christ out of the picture. And our only authority for any salvation at all is in Christ. So we can't be inclusive and really the Father himself is our authority, not just the Bible written, but the Father has designated by whom we'd be saved.

One of the things, you can be inclusive or you can be biblical, but you can't be both, right? One of the things that scripture clarifies for us, and actually in many instances in great detail and clarity, One of the things that Scripture clarifies for us is details like that.

Would you know, if it were not for Scripture, that Christ died for your sins, was buried and rose again? Would you have any idea that you were in Christ, in the heavenly places? Not at all. It's Scripture's revelation of that. And by the way, this is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit working together so that it would be revealed to you, so that you would even know about it.

If we look at the top of page 2, and as we read the passage here, and also the other letters written by Paul, we'll see that God the Father accomplishes all that He does for the believer by placing each of us who believes in Christ. So, in Christ is not only the location, which is personal, as Stan pointed out, it's not reversible. We don't slip in and out of it, there's no grayscale. With grayscale, you might be thinking, well, I'm 60% in Christ, and I'm kind of working on trying to get the other 40 in there. No, this is God's accomplishment. It is entirely done, and it is done permanently. It's not something I add to or can even detract from. It's not something I can have any impact upon. All I did was believe. He did the rest. But not only that.

Placing each believer in the heavenlies in Christ, and it was God who did it, 1 Corinthians 1.30, is how God the Father, and look at the bullets on the top of page 2 there, He has blessed us, every one of us, each one of us, in the heavenly places by placing us into Christ. He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. As I pointed out, we're not choosable otherwise. He predestined us to adoption of sons and to be to the praise of His glory.

He made it so that we have the redemption and forgiveness of trespasses and sins, that's including Colossians 1.14. He sealed us in Christ.

He did all those things Not only as a, here's the location, you're in the heavenlies in Christ, but also as the means of accomplishing these things. Do you see that? It's how he gets it done, is one way we could put it, rather informally. This is how God the Father gets it done. He places us into Christ, it's done, it's accomplished, permanently, it's all his doing, it's all to his credit.

But you notice what we see in there, the Father's action, His love, grace, kindness, and care for each one of us extends from eternity past, before the foundation of the world. Our being in Christ is in the mind of the Father from before the world was made.

He did the choosing. Next, the reality, impact, and truth of our blessings continues into the present. And the outcome of those blessings is reality on into the Millennial Kingdom, which is mentioned twice in Ephesians chapter 1. And the outcome of the blessings will most assuredly remain and have full effect on into eternity future. Ephesians 1, 3, and 4, he chose us in him that we would be holy and blameless.

And what is predestined? And you can conclude with that Romans 8, 28-30. What's predestined? What's going to happen? You're going to be conformed to the image of his Son. That's the predestined outcome. And in that you will be holy and blameless. Is Christ holy and blameless? Yep. And so this is going to happen, right? Yes.

I was thinking, this definitely shows God's omniscience. Because it's not a haphazard plan that maybe doesn't work and maybe it won't. But before the foundation of the earth, he knew all these things were going to happen. So he devised this very orderly, non-chaotic, very peaceful method of getting to where we all need to be in the end. I mean, omniscience, that's the only thing you could say about that. It's not haphazard. Right? Not at all. Yes.

Is it right to say that the end of all of this is that he receives the glory and the praise for who he is? The end of this is that he receives the glory and the praise. So let's read the end of the passage at the bottom of page one. The Holy Spirit of promise who has given us a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of His glory. That's exactly that. Is that part of the predestination? Is that what he's aiming at? That we would appreciate Him? So let's go back to this predestinedness to adoption of sons and to be to the praise of His glory.

Now, so am I, Vern, going to mess up here on planet earth? Already have, probably will again, right? That being the case, am I going to mess up what God has predestined? Am I going to mess up to the point where all of a sudden, you know, you were seated with Christ, but now you're not? That's not happening, is it? I'm not going to be unseated with Christ. I'm not going to be unidentified with His death. That's not happening.

There is not only not a statement, Now here's various places where the Apostle Paul pointed out, here's Demas who went and followed the world. Alexander the coppersmith did him much harm, may have even claimed to have been a Christian. Who knows? We don't know a lot about him. But there's not some statement there. Demas used to be seated with Christ, but he blew it. He got a Teflon seat. He slipped out. Not happening. There is not a statement of it. There is not even a threat.

The Apostle Paul, versus all the apostles as they wrote, there are various kinds of warnings. There is the book of Hebrews with some pretty intense warnings. There is no unseated in the heavenlies. There is no, you know, you were in Christ, but now you're out. Or you guys, you know, you got one foot in Christ and the other foot's on a banana peel. Right? None of that. You just don't see that. So the identification truths themselves, being in Christ, is not something that we see in Scripture any reverse of. Doesn't happen. Yes.

So do you think the Pharisees and maybe even Paul when he was a Pharisee would have seen themselves as in Abraham and in Moses? What's interesting is we don't have a lot of statements about how they viewed themselves in terms of what they were in. We do have this statement from the Apostle Paul in his first Corinthians chapter 10. that the Jews were baptized into Moses, into the water, under the cloud, and through the sea. They were baptized into Moses. So you do see that. You also see a repeated phrase, in Israel. So there are somewhat equivalent terms to what we have as being baptized into Christ.

So Paul would have just carried this forward, like in the book of Hebrews, right? Yeah, some of those things where we have, here's 164 times in the New Testament, and Paul is most of them, but not all of them, where it talks about we are in Christ. So, you have fewer statements with regards to the Jews and what they were in and who they were in, but they're still there.

One of the things that might help is And correct me if I'm wrong, the preposition n in Greek has the characteristics of location, but also of means. By means of Christ is also in their thinking. Yeah, and that's exactly the point in this lesson. It's not simply location, which would say in the heavenlies, that's a place, but in Christ, which is a person, But also, this is how God gets it done.

To look at, in other words, I'm redeemed and forgiven. How did God get that done? He put you into Christ. And you look at it, I'm blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. How do you get that done? By placing you into Christ. Or by means of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Yeah, in other words, what happens is that is what gives all these things traction. We look at it and say, how am I forgiven? I'm forgiven by being placed into Christ. So that's how we get spiritual traction, so to speak, is we are placed into Christ. That's the mechanism, that is the means, that's how he gets it done.

Isn't that the means of our blessing? Oh, absolutely. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing, and that's a summary statement, because what Ephesians chapter 1 continues with after that is, let me give you the details of how we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And it's not simply locations, but it's also an expression of, this is the means, this is how God accomplishes it, this is how God gets it done.

Yes? Speaking of means, I like the way Harold Hooner points out in Ephesians Concentration that you can divide 3-14 up into three different sections. And the first section talks about what the Father did, which ends with verse 6, to the praise of the glory of his grace. The second section talks about what Christ did, and it ends in verse 12 with, to the praise of his glory, and then the third section talks about what the Holy Spirit did, and it ends with, to the praise of his glory.

It all talks about God, but this is what the Trinity is doing for us. Yes, it is every single person of the Trinity involved in our blessings. The Father is first credited with these things, but in fact every single person voluntarily did this for us. And we did what to deserve it?

Absolutely nothing. Zip. heavenly is because we are in Christ and Christ is in the heavenlies, right? Isn't that how that works? Yes. We've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, but let's ask this question, where historically did our in Christ position start, historically and geographically? First of all, before the foundation of the world, in terms of before anything was made, in Christ was then implemented at the cross. That was the beginning point, right?

So five things, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. And that seeding, that fifth way, place, in which we are identified with Christ, that fifth place then is where it ends up. One of the points we've made is that the sequence of those five things is not random and coincidental. It's critical. If we weren't first seated in heavenlies with Christ and then crucified and then resurrected and then buried, The sequence is not accidental. It is important. We were crucified and died, buried, resurrected, ascended and seated, and at the end of those is the heavenly places where we are blessed.

So what we have here is this is how God the Father gets it done. We see God's character coming through. We see His love and His grace and His kindness. Now, so this whole thing is that to our glory. It's to the praise of His glory. So, one of the ways we could summarize it, God declares and reveals His glory. He shares His glory with us.

Glory being what? Glory is the radiant essence of who God is, that he might be glorified. So it's not that we would be glorified. It's a mistake that John, towards the end of Revelation, got wrong twice. He started worshipping angels who only had a shared glory. But we're included in that sharing of glory, that he might be glorified.

So as we look at these unfathomable riches that we have in Christ, it's in Christ as to personal location, but it's also in Christ as to me. This is how the Father gets it done. So all the different ways in which we're blessed, And by the way, how long does Paul go on in Ephesians with all these blessings? For eternity? Is that what you're thinking? Yeah, certainly for those, the blessings are enduring.

But here's six chapters in the book of Ephesians, right? And he basically goes on with these blessings for the first four and a half chapters. It's only in the middle of chapter 5 that you start getting something to do. The end of chapter 4 and into chapter 5. It's something to do. And then when he starts talking about things to do. He refers back to the blessings as the basis for it. Forgive one another, why? Because God and Christ forgave you.

It is no longer the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount. Forgive one another, because if you don't, God won't forgive you. That's law. Grace says, forgive one another as God and Christ has forgiven you. God and Christ has forgiven you. So it's forgive because you've been forgiven, under grace, as opposed to the law which says forgive because you want to be forgiven. Forgive in order to be forgiven. No, forgive because you've been forgiven. It's a gracious motivation, isn't it?

So, as we go through this, our being in Christ is all accomplished by God. It is location, which is not simply a place, but also a person. It's all in Christ. Do you have any spiritual blessings which are not in Christ? Where do we get them outside of Christ? Let's think about the word blessings, the way we use it. We'll ask, God bless you? What do we mean by that? Aside from Gesundheit and sneezed. So what do we mean if we say God bless you? What do we mean by that? Help that God, we'll show Him a favor. Yeah, hopefully God will show favor. We oftentimes think of blessings in a more Jewish sense, of an earthly sense. You know, you say, well, God has blessed us with this or that, you know, thing.

And is that untrue? No, it's OK. It's OK. But the realization is that those are things which may or may not be. We may or may not see earthly blessings, but the spiritual blessings he's talking about are things that are certain. They're in the heavenly places in Christ. And it's not most of them, it's every spiritual blessing.

Stan? Doesn't that go along with, I think it's James, where it says, all good things come down from the Father of Light? So that's the good, right? I think you could also probably fit it into Romans 8.28, the good That's stated there, all things come together for good. So those all come from God as well. Only positive, good things come from God. One of the things we look at here is, God works all things together for good. What's the good? The good that's revealed there in Romans 8, 28, 29, 30, is it performed in the image of this Christ? The image of Christ, right? We're conformed to the image of Christ. That's the good that he works all things for.

And it means that we're free to say that some of the things that happen here aren't very good. There are some bad, even awful things that happen here on planet Earth. And God uses those even. We are free to say, you know, this was really, really bad, some evil that was done. But does that mean it's spiritually useless? No. God works all things, including the things we can look at and say, that was really bad, all things to conform us to the image of his Son.

Unbelievers use that as an excuse to blame God. How can He be good if He allows this to happen? See, here's a part of the problem is the unbeliever cannot take advantage of God works all things together for good, who are conformed to the image of the Son.

Not only does the unbeliever not take advantage of it, but they don't see it. The God of this world, Satan, has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so that they don't see it. You know, we look at it and say, wow, this is a marvelous thing. This is part of the unfathomable riches that we have. The unbeliever doesn't see it and doesn't understand it and can't take advantage of it.

Yeah. If God doesn't do it all, then he would cease to be God. Yeah. God's sovereignty the God who does it all, right? And God the Father who is credited with every spiritual blessing. God works all things together, not ninety percent, not sixty-six and two-thirds.

It is not some percentage or grayscale deal. He works all things together for the good that were conformed to the image of his Son. It doesn't force us to say everything is good, as if we got some unrealistic statement. Some things are really nasty and awful.

But, to the good that we're conforming to the Son. And that's predestined. So, as we use the kind of target model for God's will, this is the outer target. Things that are set in place and predetermined and set in place by God, that includes our being predestined to be conforming to the Son.

And that works all things message comes through not only in Romans 8, but in this passage, which is what we're looking at here. Works all things. God is working in all things. There's never any place when God goes, oh, I tried, but you know, oops. That doesn't happen. I'm thinking that even our death, in whatever form each of us gets it, is God working all things to conform us, because we're ultimately conformed right then. Yeah. It's all the things that happen and don't happen in life, He's using all those things. conformance to the image of the Son.

Yep, Stan? I'm just going to say, when you really think about that concept in Christ, it really makes more sense when you talk about working together, unity, oneness, love one another, be of the same mind, all those things, because we're all part of the same fraternity or subordinate, right? Yep. Yep. Okay. Let's pray as we're running out of time here. Lord, thank you as we look at this.

What an amazing set of things for us to begin to comprehend here and to understand how you have done it all in Christ. We thank you, Father, for what you've done and accomplished in Christ, and even as we look at this, we have the seal of the Holy Spirit, and we don't get sealed and unsealed and sealed and unsealed, and there's no threat of unsealing. But in fact, this is a down payment to guarantee the outcome. So that's a wonderful thing for us to look at, a guaranteed outcome to everything here. the things that are good and wonderful and delightful, and the things that aren't. But the outcome is not going to get messed up. Thank you for that assurance that we have. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.