Devotional

The triune God always accomplishes His purposes (Isaiah 46:8-10). Would we expect anything less from a God who is most holy, most wise, having the fullness of life, glory, goodness, blessedness, and perfection in and of himself (2LBCF 2.1-2)? From beginning to end, the testimony of Scripture demonstrates two primary purposes that God will impeccably bring to pass from eternity past and into eternity future (Genesis 1-2; Revelation 21-22).

The first grand purpose that God will accomplish throughout all of redemptive history is the chief glorification of Himself. God delights in nothing more than putting His glorious, divine perfections on display (Isaiah 48:9-11). He has woven together every detail of human history to supremely glorify Himself (Psalm 115:3). The salvation of God’s elect (Ephesians 1:3-14), the damnation of God’s reprobate (Romans 9:22-23), the creation of the cosmos (Psalm 19:1-14), the raising up and dismantling of earthly empires (Daniel 2:21), the institution of human marriage (Ephesians 5:22-33), the establishment of the local church (1 Corinthians 12:12-27), the execution of justice through civil authorities (Romans 13:1-7) and the enjoyment of a beautiful sunset (Habakkuk 3:3) are just a few of the innumerable ways that God is glorified through His own handiwork.

The second grand purpose that God will accomplish throughout all of redemptive history is the establishment of His eternal kingdom (Ephesians 2:19-22). The God who exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is working inseparably to redeem a people from every tribe, tongue, and nation (Revelation 7:9-17). Indeed, every person who God the Father decreed to save from eternity past will come to saving faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, at the appointed time and through the appointed means by the omnipotent efficacy of God the Holy Spirit (John 6:37-40). The Bible portrays the story of how God’s kingdom is being developed, and God’s own glory is the reason for why this story exists in the first place (Hebrews 11:1-40). Thus, these two central purposes of Scripture are inextricably linked together: God is building a kingdom of redeemed sinners from every corner of the earth, and His ultimate motivation for doing so is to showcase the excellencies of His own glorious character (1 Peter 2:9-10).

When considering the relationship between each of these preeminent purposes of God, the question naturally becomes, “how should these realities impact my own life?” That is to say, “where do I find myself in the midst of God’s purposes to build His kingdom and magnify Himself?” There are only two categories that a person can find themselves in when contemplating this issue. For those who have never repented of their sin and placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope for being reconciled to God, you are presently in grave danger (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10). Outside of Christ, you are an enemy of the Most High. If left to yourself at the moment of your death or His second coming, you will be subject to a dreadful eternity of punishment in Hell for your unforgiven sins (Revelation 20:11-15). If you find yourself in this category today, turn away from your sin, and in faith, flee to the only place of refuge that God has offered perishing sinners: the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

On the other hand, for those who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, God has not merely reconciled you to Himself in justification (Romans 5:1-2). By His grace and by the work of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, God has promised to begin the work of further conforming you into the likeness of Jesus Christ Himself (Philippians 2:12-13). This work of sanctification is a gift of God’s grace and will progressively transpire in your life until the moment God calls you home to glory (Colossians 3:9-10). The Bible notes that one of the distinguishing marks of sanctification in the Christian life is the manifestation of the “fruit of the Spirit.” By virtue of the work of the Holy Spirit, all Christians can and will simultaneously manifest each of these nine qualities throughout the duration of their spiritual pilgrimage: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). This fruit of the Holy Spirit is elsewhere described as the “fruit of righteousness,” and as the follower of Christ advances in their own sanctification, each of these divinely produced qualities will be evidenced with increasing measure (Philippians 1:9-11).

All who have been justified by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone will likewise be sanctified (Romans 8:29-30). This is the purpose of God: to progressively transform His people into the same moral character of the Lord Jesus Christ during their Christian sojourn (2 Corinthians 3:18). To what end? The eternal good for every citizen of God’s kingdom and an intensified aggrandizing of God’s glory before a watching world. What greater purposes could we ever possibly conceive of?

Weekly Passages For Meditation:

Monday- Psalm 36:5-12

Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,

Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;

Your judgments are like a great deep.

O Lord, You preserve man and beast.

7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!

And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.

8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;

And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.

9 For with You is the fountain of life;

In Your light we see light.

10 O continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,

And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.

11 Let not the foot of pride come upon me,

And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.

12 There the doers of iniquity have fallen;

They have been thrust down and cannot rise.

Tuesday- Psalm 141

O Lord, I call upon You; hasten to me!

Give ear to my voice when I call to You!

2 May my prayer be counted as incense before You;

The lifting up of my hands as the evening offering.

3 Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;

Keep watch over the door of my lips.

4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,

To practice deeds of wickedness

With men who do iniquity;

And do not let me eat of their delicacies.

5 Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me;

It is oil upon the head;

Do not let my head refuse it,

For still my prayer is against their wicked deeds.

6 Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the rock,

And they hear my words, for they are pleasant.

7 As when one plows and breaks open the earth,

Our bones have been scattered at the mouth of Sheol.

8 For my eyes are toward You, O God, the Lord;

In You I take refuge; do not leave me defenseless.

9 Keep me from the jaws of the trap which they have set for me,

And from the snares of those who do iniquity.

10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,

While I pass by safely.

Wednesday- Philippians 3:7-14

7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Thursday- 1 Peter 1:22-2:3

22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,

“All flesh is like grass,

And all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

And the flower falls off,

25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word which was preached to you.

2 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

Friday- Romans 6:1-14

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Saturday- Titus 2:11-14

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.