The Real Gospel, Too Good Not to Be True – Part 1

 

Christianity has struggled for far too long with the goodness of God and what He accomplished and is working out for all the created realm—including humanity in general and each one of us individually. As I am sitting with this, I hear the words, “contained in Myself.” 

I see a huge metallic, silo-like container that appears to be floating way out in the cosmos. It looks ancient and not particularly attractive in and of itself. But its presence inexplicably compels and draws. As I continue to look, I realize that it is swallowing up everything around it. I hear Jesus say:

“I have always been, and I came in unlikely and unremarkable human flesh to yield to sin and death only to triumph over them in order to draw ALL things to Myself. I AM resurrecting, redeeming, revealing, renewing, and restoring ALL things. I AM the One Who chose you and joined Myself to you because I AM the One Who created you and crafted you in unblemished innocence, beauty, and love. I blessed you, predestined you as Mine, called you, justified you, redeemed you, forgave you, poured my grace upon you, and rejoiced in you. I AM the One Who is glorifying you in Myself. I AM the lifter of your head. I simply AM the One Who delights to lavish My love upon you! I will never stop until all is restored. I have called you by name. All I have is yours because you are Mine!”

Goodness, God is all in and holding nothing back! Truly, He who didn’t hold back His Son/Himself, how should He not freely, lavishly give us all things (Rom. 8:32). God is a God of all (Col. 1:16)!

If this sounds too good to be true, then you are tracking more with the scandalous good news of the true Gospel and not a false or watered-down version of it. Because prophetic words need to stand in the light and truth of properly interpreted scripture, I will list some scriptures that are underscoring this word to meditate upon: Prov. 8:22–31; John 1:1–5; Rom. 5:21; Rom. 6:10, 23; Rom. 8:2; Heb. 2:14; 1 Pet. 3:18; Col. 1:14, 16–20; John 11:25; Gal. 3:14; Gal 4:5; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet. 1:18–19; Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9–10; Eph. 2:10; Eph. 1:3–14; Rom. 5:17, 21; Zeph. 3:17, Rom. 8:28–35; Ps. 3:3; and Song 2:6, 7:10. 

Exploring these scriptures is an awesome study you can do on your own. It just might make you happy! 

For now, let’s check out the following juicy scriptures. Before we dive in, ask Holy Spirit to give your fresh eyes and an open heart to absorb them in a new and deeper way.

28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? 

Romans 8:28–35a (New American Standard Bible, emphasis added)

OK, let’s get our teeth into this yummy, nourishing scripture. In verse 28, we see that God is the only One who can fulfill this audacious promise to work EVERYTHING out for good—even when everything is definitely not good. How He does this is a mystery, but if you have been walking with Jesus for any length of time, you probably have seen this for yourself. It is astounding how this works. 

In verses 29–30, there is this glorious smattering of what God has done for all creation as a whole and for each child in specific. The list goes:

• Foreknew, then
• Predestined, then
• Called, then 
• Justified, then finally 
• Glorified.

Because God created each and every human being in His image and likeness (Gen. 1:26–27), each and every human being is “foreknown.” No one has been created without God doing the creating, which means He has known about each son and daughter. 

The word predestined has a lot of baggage with it. If you were brought up in any camp that had a Calvinistic bent to it, you were taught that some people were predestined for heaven and others for hell. That is a truly demonic teaching. God created no one for hell. That would make Him truly satanic. 

So, if this is not about heaven and hell, what is it we were ALL predestined for? Keep reading in the same verses. It is “to become conformed to the image of His Son”—the firstborn of many brothers and sisters. That is your destiny, this side of heaven and the other side. 

I know we are all too familiar with how we do NOT look like Jesus, but the invitation is to be far more taken with God’s ability to work in us vs. our fallenness. Put another way, the Second Adam, Christ, is vastly more impactful to redeem and restore way past the First Adam, who messed it all up for all creation (Romans 5:12, 15–17).

One way or another, you and I will end up looking just like Christ in our flavor. That is who you truly are—amazing!

The next descriptor in our analysis is to be “called,” which is the Greek word kaleō, which means “to be called or invited by name with overtones of fulfilling a purpose or calling.” Everyone was designed uniquely and beautifully, with a unique and beautiful purpose (Eph. 2:10) that gives life fulfillment and meaning. Our greatest purpose is to love and be loved, and that will look like many things during this time on earth. 

The next in the lineup is that we were “justified.” This is the Greek verb dikaioōi, which means we are declared by Him as righteous based on His finished work, not our good works (1 Cor. 1:30, 2 Cor. 5:21, and Eph. 2:8–9). God insists on this point! If we think we have to add anything to become righteous, we are literally saying that Jesus did a sub-standard job on that cross. 

Our salvation is complete; however, we need to work out that completed salvation. The Passion Translation of the Bible tells us to “continue to make this new life fully manifested” (Phil. 2:12). Salvation from start to finish has happened by the championship of God alone. Our part is to awaken to it and Who Christ is for humanity and literally AS humanity, agree with it, and cooperate with the process of working and walking it out. And He helps us do that (John 15:5 and Phil. 2:13). It is truly humbling that all God is asking for is your big yes and ongoing yesses to Him. 

And that brings us to the next part: being “glorified.” To be glorified is the Greek verb doxazō. Its meaning is:

• to think, suppose, be of opinion

• to praise, extol, magnify, celebrate

• to honour, do honour to, hold in honour

• to make glorious, adorn with lustre, clothe with splendour

• to impart glory to something, render it excellent

• to make renowned, render illustrious
• to cause the dignity and worth of some person or thing to become manifest and acknowledged

Just think—God is of the opinion that we are glorious. He loves to praise, extol, magnify, and celebrate us. Can you believe it?! He wants to adorn us with luster and clothe us with splendor. He wants to impart glory to us. He wants to render us excellent, to make us renowned and illustrious. He wants our dignity and worth to become manifest and acknowledged. 

Wow that is heady stuff! 

And, if you were brought up with the idea that we are sinful worms who should simper around a glorious God, Who does not share His glory with us, that could sound heretical. However, Christ really did something sweeping on that cross so that we are NOW the righteousness of God by identity, and we sin to the extent that we don’t know it (2 Cor. 5:21 and Rom. 7:8–25). 

Indeed, God insists on sharing His glory with us because we are His kids (Col. 1:27). The verse that says He does not share His glory is referring to idols, not God’s children (Is. 42:8–9). He will NEVER share His glory with an idol, but He has predestined us for glory because we are His kids, as Christ is in this world (1 John 4:17 and Rom. 8:17–18, 29). Thus, we are transfigured into the image of Christ from glory to glory to glory (1 Cor. 3:17–18). Hallelujah!

Instead of this causing us to be prideful (a false self that God will obliterate in favor of the true self), it causes us to be so humble and grateful—and, frankly, in love—with such a breathtaking, beautiful God!

In short, it causes us to worship Him because He adores us so, even when we have been such stinkers!

Notice that ALL of these verbs are PAST TENSE:

• Foreknew
• Predestined
• Called
• Justified
• Glorified

Being glorified is the hardest one to wrap our heads around. I regularly look at myself and think, “Yea, that right there is not glorious!” Can anyone relate?!

BUT this is where we RUN to God with our stinky-poopoo sin and say, “Daddy, get the icky out and off of me!”—shaking ourselves as if we are trying to shake the sticky booger off. 

It creates a picture that hopefully is not so crass that you are laughing. 

This is on purpose, because that is us cooperating with God—agreeing that the attitude/behavior/motivation that is sinful is indeed sinful (actually worse than we know) and not us trying to justify or hide it. At the same time, God does not want us to be condemned (Rom. 8:1). AND He wants to cleanse us of ALL unrighteousness in our minds, wills, emotions, personalities, bodies, behaviors… This is us cooperating with God in conforming us into His glorious image. This is us being unveiled as the glorious sons and daughters of God (Rom. 8:19–20). Amazing!

There is a ton to meditate upon here, and I encourage you to study it out for yourself. I’d love to hear from you!

Multiplied blessings,

Catherine