Latest / Reformed Thinking / Foreknown to Be Conformed: God's Sovereign Purpose (Romans 8:29)

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Foreknown to Be Conformed: God's Sovereign Purpose (Romans 8:29) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reform Thinking. We are so glad you are joining
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us today. I want you to imagine, just for
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a second, being trapped inside a collapsing building.
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Oh wow. Yeah, it is a terrifying
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thought, right? The concrete pillars are
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cracking, the air is, you know, thick with dust, and the floor
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right beneath you is actually giving way.
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That is the stuff of nightmares, honestly.
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It really is, and the absolute last thing you want in that
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terrifying moment is a rescuer who just drops a rope down from
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a helicopter, right? Like a rescuer who shouts over a
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megaphone. Hey, I hope you have the
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strengths to pull yourself up. You do not want a rescue
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strategy that depends on your own exhausted, trembling hands.
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No, you definitely do not. You would have 0 hope in that
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situation. Precisely.
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You want a rescuer with the structural blueprints of the
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building. You want someone who designed a
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rescue mission from the ground up, who knows the architecture
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of the collapse, and who will, you know, physically pull you
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out of the rubble no matter what condition you are in.
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That is a phenomenal way to frame what we are talking about
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today. Thanks.
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So welcome to the deep dive. Today we are unpacking the
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absolute best structural blueprint for the human soul.
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We are taking a look at a single massive sentence written by the
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apostle Paul, Romans 8.29 and. That is a huge verse.
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I mean, it is a heavy verse to tackle.
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It is. But our mission today is to look
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at this text not as like a dry academic equation, but as a
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pastoral lifeline. This sentence was written to
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steady, terrified believers facing actual visceral
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suffering. It offers the kind of rescue
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plan that does not depend on our trembling hands.
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That desire for absolute security is universal.
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I mean, every human heart crames that, and it is the specific
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issue this text resolves. Yeah, because if you really
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think about the alternative, it is terrifying.
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It is if our final salvation rested on the fullness of human
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free will, we would live in a state of constant, unbearable
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anxiety. We would be terrified every
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single day. Right.
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We would wake up every good morning evaluating our own
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performance, wondering if our faith was strong enough today or
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if our resolve might break tomorrow.
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Which is an awful way to live. Exactly.
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The theological systems that rely on human cooperation, where
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you know, God does his part and then he waits for us to do ours.
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They create a very fragile framework like.
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Holding on to that rope from the helicopter.
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Spot on. If salvation depends on you
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maintaining your grasp on the rope, then you can lose it
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because let's be honest, your grip will inevitably fail at
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some point. Yeah, my grip fails all the
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time. But Romans 8.29 provides an
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ironclad guarantee rooted entirely in divine sovereignty.
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It takes the heavy burden of securing eternity off the frail
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shoulders of the believer. And it puts it somewhere safe.
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Yes, it places it squarely on the omnipotent shoulders of God.
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This verse reveals that the believers final security and
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sanctification rests entirely on God's eternal decree.
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Which is incredible news. It is.
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It is a text that completely crushes the pride of the
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self-righteous who think they have contributed to their
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salvation, but at the same time it lifts up the broken hearted
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who know they have nothing to offer God but their own failure.
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OK, before we look at the individual words of this verse,
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we really have to grasp the high stakes environment where this
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text was born. Context is everything here.
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Right, we need to understand the Crucible of Rome in the 1st
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century. We are talking right around
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8057. We need to see why such a robust
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ironclad theology was necessary for these people to even
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survive. Because they were not living in
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a comfortable, easy environment. Not at all.
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Paul's writing to a church he had not even visited yet he's
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writing to believers living in the imperial capital, the
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absolute epicenter of the known world. 1st century Rome was not
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it was not a neutral place to practice a new religion.
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The historical context here is staggering.
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I mean, 1st century Rome was a city drunk on its own glory.
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It was an empire built on massive human achievement, huge
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military might, and the polytheistic worship of false
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deities. Every single corner of the city
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featured a temple, an altar, or a statue dedicated to a God or
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to the Emperor himself. In the middle of all that
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darkness, you have this tiny, fragile church.
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Exactly. They were a vulnerable, diverse
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minority community. They were continually pressured
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by the surrounding Pagan culture and harassed by the imperial
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authorities. The political and social tension
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was just suffocating. And they had internal drama too.
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Oh, massive internal drama. Just a few years earlier, in AD
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49, the Emperor Claudius had expelled all the Jews from Rome
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over civil disturbances. Right.
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The whole edict of Claudius, yeah.
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And when they were finally allowed to return years later,
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massive friction erupted. You had returning Jewish
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believers clashing with the Gentile converts who had been
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leading the house churches while the Jews were exiled.
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That friction is a huge piece of the puzzle.
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Here it really is. You have Jewish believers coming
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back and they're bringing all their dietary customs, their
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Sabbath traditions, and their historical connection to the Law
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of Moses. And they walk right into these
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house churches. Yeah, house churches being run
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by Gentiles who, you know, eat pork and have absolutely no
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historical connection to the Jewish law.
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They were arguing over how grace actually works and who had the
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right standing before God. But beyond the internal church
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drama, there was an external shadow creeping over them.
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A very dark shadow, yes. Looming in the very near future
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was the Emperor Nero. Within a few short years of Paul
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writing this letter, Nero would unleash A horrific wave of
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persecution. He was a monster.
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He was. He would literally light his
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imperial gardens with the burning bodies of Christians.
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The theology of Romans 8 had to be strong enough to withstand
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the Coliseum. They did not need a sentimental,
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watered down religion. No they didn't.
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They did not need a self help philosophy telling them to
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discover their inner strength. They needed a doctrine of
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salvation that would not shatter when the Lions were released in
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the arena. And that intense pressure shapes
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the entire logical flow of Paul's letter.
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Paul builds a very rigorous legal and theological argument
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leading up to Chapter 8. He really builds it brick by
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brick. Right in chapters one through
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three, he indicts the entire human race.
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He outlines human depravity, proving that both the Pagan
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participating in idolatry and the moralists trying to keep the
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law are universally guilty before a holy God.
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No one escapes that verdict. Then in chapters 4 and five he
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lays out justification by faith alone.
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He talks about imputed righteousness apart from human
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works. Which leads right into the
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practical struggle. Yes, Chapter 6 and seven deal
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with the agonizing ongoing struggle against the remnants of
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the flesh. It is that daily fight against
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sin that every single believer experiences.
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The wretched man that I am Passage.
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Exactly. And all of this climbs toward
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the magnificent summit of Romans chapter 8.
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It starts with that stunning declaration that there is no
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condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
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And right before our specific verse, the focus zeroes in on
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suffering. Right in Romans 8.18 through 27,
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Paul discusses the intense groaning of creation.
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He talks about believers groaning, waiting for the
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redemption of their bodies. He is brutally honest that the
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Christian life in this fallen world is marked by pain,
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weakness and decay. It is not a sugar coated
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presentation of the Christian. Life Not at all.
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But then he makes this massive audacious claim in Romans 8.28.
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He says that all things work together for good for those who
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love God and are called according to His purpose.
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But how can Paul guarantee that? That is the big question.
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Like how can he look at a congregation that might
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literally be fed to wild animals in a few years and promise that
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their suffering will not end in total destruction?
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He guarantees it by using verse 29 as the structural pillar for
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verse 28. OK, unpack that for us.
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Well, Paul uses a specific connecting word here that
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functions like a steel beam holding up a roof.
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He begins verse 29 with the word for.
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The word hoti in the original Greek.
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Right, he is providing the theological proof for the
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promise he just made. Paul is arguing from eternity
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past to eternity future to secure the believers present
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reality. Introduces what theologians call
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the Golden Chain. Yes, He initiates an unbroken
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sequence of divine actions, foreknowledge, predestination,
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calling, justification, and glorification.
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This sequence runs from before the universe was created all the
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way to the final resurrection. OK, let me push back on behalf
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of the listener for a second here.
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Go for it. If someone is facing genuine
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horror right now, like, you know, those Roman Christians
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anticipating persecution, or maybe a listener today sitting
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in an emergency room dealing with a devastating medical
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diagnosis, how does a theological discussion about
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eternity past offer any immediate comfort?
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That is a very fair question to ask.
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Right, because when you are staring at an awful MRI result,
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or you are dealing with the loss of a loved one, hearing about
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decrees made before the foundation of the world might
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feel abstract. It might feel completely
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disconnected from the visceral pain of that specific moment.
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It can feel that way, but the answer lies in the massive
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difference between random chaotic suffering and a
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sovereign plan. What do you mean by that?
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Well, if suffering is just the result of blind fate, a
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biological accident, or the devil slipping 1 past God's
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defenses, then your pain is meaningless.
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It is just chaos. That would mean you are just
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collateral damage. Exactly.
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You would be adrift in a universe that does not care
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about you. But if your life is held by a
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purpose older than the universe itself, it changes the entire
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landscape of your pain. So Paul is shifting their
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perspective. Right.
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Paul is not asking suffering believers to climb upward from
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their agonizing circumstances to figure throughout a doubtful
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guess about God. He descends from God's eternal
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purpose right down into their circumstances.
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He. Brings eternity down into the
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dirt and the blood of their doily lives.
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He teaches them to read every single sorrow beneath that
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specific light. The terror of random suffering
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is replaced by the comfort of an unshakable sovereign plan.
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It means the pain is not wasted. It is actively governed by a
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father who has secured your final destination.
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Yes. And that brings us to the very
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first action God takes to secure that destination.
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We have to look at the intimacy before time.
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Let's read it. The first clause of the verse
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says for those whom he foreknew. We really need to define what
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this word foreknowledge actually means.
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Because a lot of people misunderstand it, right?
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And that misunderstanding completely derails their entire
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view of grace. It does.
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The typical error here is the prescient view, which is
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basically the crystal ball view of God.
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I have heard that taught so many times.
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It is very common in synergies theological systems.
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This view suggests that God simply peered down the corridors
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of time, foresaw who would exercise their free will to
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believe in Him, and then based his election on that foreseen
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human action. So God just reacts to what he
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sees us doing in the future. Right, which is a massive
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violation of both the original language syntax and biblical
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theology. Think about it.
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If God's election is dependent upon foreseen faith, then the
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human act becomes the deciding factor.
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It makes man the author of salvation.
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Spot on. It makes God's grace a reaction
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to human initiative. It would mean the comfort of
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Romans 8 rests on the most changeable, unstable thing in
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the universe. The sinners will.
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So if foreknowledge does not mean looking into the future to
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gather information, what does it mean?
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To understand it, we have to look at the Old Testament
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background. OK, let's go there.
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The Hebrew concept of knowing the word yada indicates
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something much heavier than just intellectual awareness.
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It indicates intimate covenantal affection.
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Like in Genesis 4. Perfect example, Genesis 4 says
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Adam knew Eve and she conceived. That is obviously not just
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mental recognition. Adam didn't just realize Eve
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existed. Right, that is the most intimate
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personal relationship possible between two humans.
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Exactly. Or look at Amos 3.2 where God
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says to Israel, you only have I known of all the families of the
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earth. Now God obviously knew perfectly
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well that the Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Assyrians
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existed. Right.
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He was not declaring intellectual ignorance of other
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nations. He was declaring a special
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distinguishing, electing love for Israel.
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And we see the exact same concept in the New Testament,
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don't we? We do think about Matthew 7.23.
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Christ tells the false professors on the day of
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judgment. I never knew you.
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But he obviously knows who they are because he is actively
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judging them right in that moment.
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Yes, he knows their names, he knows every sin they ever
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committed, but he never had a saving, redemptive relationship
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with them. So when Paul uses the word
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foreknowledge in Romans 8.29, the grammar of grace is entirely
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focused on the direct object. The direct object of the verb is
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people. Yes, it says whom he foreknew,
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not what he foreknew. Paul does not say God foreknew
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their faith, their good works, or their future decisions.
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He foreknew them. God foreloved specific
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individuals before the foundation of the world.
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He set His covenantal affection upon them.
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Let me give the listener a way to visualize the difference
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here. Please do.
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The false view of foreknowledge is it's like a college
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admissions officer. The officer looks at a stack of
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high school transcripts, predicts which students are
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going to get good grades based on their past performance or
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their test scores, and then admits them based on that
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prediction. So the student basically earns
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their spot and the officer just ratifies it, right?
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But the biblical view of foreknowledge is completely
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different. It is like a parent finalizing
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the adoption of a specific child from across the world.
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Oh. That is a beautiful picture.
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Yeah, the parent loves that child intensely before they've
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even met, entirely independent of the child's future
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performance, their grades, or their behavior.
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The love comes first. Exactly.
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The parents love is the initiating cause of the
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relationship. It is not a reaction to the
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child's merits. That analogy captures the
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mechanics of monarchistic grace beautifully.
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Salvation begins with God's gracious, unpromising love for
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his people. But that intimate affection is
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only the beginning, right? It is because God loves specific
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people. Beforehand, He took decisive
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action to secure their future. This leads to the next step in
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the sequence. He also predestined.
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Yes, the original word here, pro risen, is fascinating.
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It is a compound of a prefix meaning before and a root word
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meaning to determine, to mark out a boundary, or to set a
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limit. We get our English word horizon
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from that route, don't we? We do so literally.
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God pre horizoned the destiny of his elect.
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He pre horizoned them. That is such a heavy thought.
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He set the boundary of their existence before time even
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began. Yes.
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When an ancient person looked at the horizon, it was the absolute
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limit of their world. It was the fixed boundary they
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could not alter. By saying God pre horizoned our
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destiny, Paul was saying this is a unilateral act of God alone.
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Completely unilateral. This refutes any system that
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requires human cooperation to maintain justification, like
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Roman Catholicism for instance. It also refutes modern
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philosophies like open theism it.
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Destroys open theism. Open theism claims that God does
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not actually know the future or determine it, but is just, you
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know, experiencing time and reacting to it alongside us.
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Which strips God of his sovereignty entirely.
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It does. It leaves the believer with a
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deity who is just as vulnerable to the chaos of history as we
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are. Predestination, on the other
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other hand, is the immovable decree of God.
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It is a settled matter. The phrasing Paul uses
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highlights a completed, unshakable action in the eternal
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counsel of God. All who are foreknown are
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invariably predestined. The sequence cannot be broken.
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Every single person, God for loves, is guaranteed to reach
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the destination He sets for them.
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No dropouts, no failures. Now I know that the secular
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mind, and honestly a lot of religious minds absolutely
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recoil at the word predestination.
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It is a tough pill to swallow for a lot of people.
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They hear that word and they think of cold fatalism.
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They think it sounds like biological determinism where we
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are all just robots acting out pre written code.
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Or Stoic fate, where our choices do not matter at all.
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Right, they picture a puppet master pulling strings while we
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blindly dance on a stage. It is vital to clarify the
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distinction between biblical predestination and fatalism
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here. Unpack that distinction for us.
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Fatalism is a blind, loveless mechanical necessity.
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It has no father, no cross, no holy wisdom, and no grace.
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It is just cold, hard fate. But biblical predestination is
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different. Completely different biblical
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predestination is the gracious, wise counsel of a personal
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father orchestrating history for the good of his children.
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And he doesn't just decree the end result, does he?
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No, he decrees the means to reach that end.
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He ordains preaching, regeneration, repentance, and
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faith. The decree does not cancel human
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action or make the preaching of the gospel irrelevant.
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It actually establishes the means.
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Yes, it guarantees their success.
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When you preach the gospel, you are not hoping someone's
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autonomous free will might randomly cooperate.
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You are throwing out the net, confident that the Holy Spirit
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will effectually draw the elect. So if the destination is already
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locked in if the horizon is set, I have a question.
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Go ahead. Why should the listener bother
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fighting personal fan? Like if God has already decided
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the outcome, why not just sit back, relax, and let the chips
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fall where they may? The classic objection.
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Yeah, why pursue holiness if your arrival at the finish line
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is a total guarantee? That question brings us to the
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exact target of God's predestinating decree.
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God does not predestine people to an abstract heaven or to a
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state of consequence free living.
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What is he predestined them to? He predestines them to a
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specific shape and a specific way of living.
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The text explicitly says to be conformed to the image of his
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son. So God's decree is not just a
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cold registry of names on a list.
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No, it is the divine determination to make sinners
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resemble Jesus Christ. We are not just saved from
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penalty, we are saved for a specific character.
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This brings us to the Crucible of character.
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The word Paul uses for conformed is really fascinating.
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This amorphous. Right, he uses a word that means
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sharing the internal essence and character of something.
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He specifically avoids using a different Greek word schema,
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which just means an outward fleeting appearance or a
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superficial disguise. The distinction is absolutely
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crucial. Why is that?
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If Paul had used the word for an outward disguise, it would imply
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that God just dresses us up to look moral on the outside while
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leaving our hearts corrupt, like wearing a mask to a masquerade
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ball. But the word he uses points to a
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radical internal remaking of the human soul.
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God is predestining the believer to undergo a substantive change
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in their very nature. The believer is being
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fundamentally rewired to share the moral characteristics of
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Christ. This points all the way back to
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the opening chapters of Genesis. The creation account.
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Right. Humanity was originally created
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in the Imago Dei, the image of God.
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We were made to reflect God's righteous rule, His creativity,
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and His fellowship. But that image was shattered in
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the Garden of Eden when Adam rebelled.
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Sin defaced our moral likeness. We still have value as image
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bearers, you know. But the mirror is broken.
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It is totally distorted. And Christ is the last Adam.
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He is the perfect image of the invisible God.
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He succeeded everywhere. The first Adam failed.
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So in salvation, the Holy Spirit is painstakingly restoring that
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shattered image, and the exact pattern he is using is the
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Incarnate Son of God. To achieve this conformity, we
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desperately need Christ in his threefold office.
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That is a very robust theological framework.
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It is the best framework for understanding how sanctification
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actually works. We need Christ as prophet to
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reveal the true image of God to our darkened, ignorant minds
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through His Word. Because we are naturally blind
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to the truth. Right.
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We need him as priest who's atoning blood, cleanses our
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deformities and removes the guilt of our sin, making our
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conformity a holiness legally possible before a holy God.
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And we need him as king. Yes we need him as king to
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sovereignly rule over our daily lives and subjugate our
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rebellious flesh we cannot conform ourselves to his image
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by sheer willpower. We require the spirit of Christ
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to actively reign within us putting our sin to death.
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This doctrine of conformity absolutely dismantles several
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modern cultural movements that have infected the church today.
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Like the prosperity gospel for instance.
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Exactly that movement teaches that.
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God 's primary goal is your earthly wealth your physical
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health and your immediate visible success.
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They tell you God wants you perfectly healthy and wealthy
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right now. But Romans 8.29 says God 's goal
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is your holiness God is predestining you to look like a
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crucified savior. If the Holy Spirit must use
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financial ruin physical illness or severe trials to chip away
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your worldliness and make you look more like Jesus he will do
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it? And it will be an act of
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sovereign love. We also see this text refuting
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the pragmatic seeker sensitive movements that try to soften the
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hard edges of biblical truth to make people comfortable.
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God is not trying to make you comfortable in your sin.
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He's determined to make you holy this applies to the moral guy
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for the regenerate believer election demands holiness.
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So antinomianism is totally out. Completely out the idea of
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claiming you are saved by grace while cherishing and practicing
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sin is a total misunderstanding of this text.
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God never predestines a people to justification while leaving
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them strangers to holiness. Let me give you an analogy for
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how this process actually feels in real life.
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I love a good analogy. Think of a believer as a rough
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unshaped block of marble the Holy Spirit is the master
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sculptor. And the blueprint the exact
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model he is working from is Jesus Christ.
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So he is carving us into that image.
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Right every single strike of the chisel knocks away a piece of
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worldliness a piece of pride a piece of selfishness.
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And that striking process is not painless.
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Not at all the chisel strikes often come in the form of
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suffering illness betrayal or hardship when the hammer hits
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the chisel the dust flies the stone cracks.
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And it hurts. It causes genuine groaning.
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Which Paul just talked about earlier in the chapter the
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marble does not get to dictate how the chisel hits but the
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guaranteed result of all that painful striking is a
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masterpiece that Florida State reflects the image of the sun?
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That analogy highlights the immense pastoral comfort of this
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text when you are going through the furnace of affliction God is
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not wasting your pain he. Is not just experimenting on
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you? He is actively shaping family
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likeness the suffering is the chisel.
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The cross shaped path is not a contradiction of God 's
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predestinating love it is the very instrument of it.
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Because Christ suffered too. Right Christ was a man of
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sorrows acquainted with grief if we are to bear his image we will
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share in his suffering so that we may also share in his
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glorification. So we have covered the intimacy
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of foreknowledge the unbreakable horizon of predestination and
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the Crucible of conformity we are being shaped to look like
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Jesus. But why.
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Yeah what is the final reason for all of this the verse shifts
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our eyes off ourselves completely and places them
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directly onto Christ. It concludes by revealing the
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final goal. Let me read it in order that he
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might be the first born among many brothers.
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This is the supreme doxology this clause reveals the grand so
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that of redemptive history. It reveals that salvation is
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intensely theocentric and christocentric.
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Yes it is entirely centered on God and entirely centered on
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Christ. It is not anthropocentric.
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It is not about us. No God does not save sinners
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chiefly to make much of them he saves sinners to make much of
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his son in them and over them the father saving decree aims
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squarely at the absolute supremacy of the son.
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We need to unpack this word first born very carefully.
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Throughout history there have been massive theological battles
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over this specific word. Huge battles we must guard
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against the ancient heresy of arianism which is still
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propagated today by groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses.
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What do they claim about it? They claim that first born means
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Christ was the first created being stripping him of his
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eternal deity. Which is a fatal error?
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It is but when you look at how the word is used in scripture
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like in colossians one or Psalm 89 you see it as a title of
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supreme rank preeminence sovereignty and the right of.
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Inheritance. It has to do with status not
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origin. Right in the ancient world the
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first born son received the double portion of the estate and
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the leadership of the family the eternal son of God who was
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uncreated and shares the exact divine nature of the father took
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on human flesh. And through his work he earned
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that title for his humanity yes. In his incarnation death and
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victorious resurrection he has been mcclared the preeminent
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head of a new redeemed humanity. He is the elder brother of a
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massive corporate family Paul calls them many brothers.
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That phrase is so significant. It really is this concept of a
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blood bot family absolutely shatters modern hyper
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individualism. Oh without a doubt.
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We live in a society that tells you to define yourself by your
25:08
internal desires your career your political affiliation or
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even your. Trauma.
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People are obsessed with personal identity.
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We have massive identity politics dividing people by
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ethnic grievances in victimhood categories people are constantly
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searching for a group to belong to based on superficial traits.
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The biblical answer to that cultural fragmentation is a
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superior identity the listener 's truest most durable identity
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is not found in their worldly background or their personal
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achievements. Where is it found?
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It is found in being a member of a vast redeemed family gathered
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around the first born. The ground of fellowship in the
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church is not cultural sameness or socioeconomic status it is a
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common relation to the sun. We are the inheritance given by
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the father to the sun. The great puritan theologian
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John Owen noted that understanding this eternal
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electing love is what fuels the most vigorous fiery worship.
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Owen was brilliant on that subject.
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He was when we grasped that God chose us when we were hostile
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sinners entirely apart from our own merit and brought us into
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this royal family it produces staggering.
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Gratitude and unyielding praise. But let me pose a tough question
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here. I'm ready.
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If a human orchestrated a massive play wrote all the parts
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built the set and manipulated all the actors just to make
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himself the star and demand applause from the audience we
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would call him a megalomaniac? We would call him a narcissist.
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Right so if God orchestrated all of human history decreed the
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fall planned redemption and predestined individuals all just
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to bring glory to his own son. Doesn't that sound slightly
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narcissistic why is it righteous for God to demand all the
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attention. It is a common objection but it
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fundamentally misunderstands the difference between the creator
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and the creature. Break that down for us.
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If a human demands absolute praise it is idolatry because
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humans are flawed finite creatures we are not the source
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of all goodness truth and beauty?
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But God is. Exactly because Christ is the
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absolute source of all perfection righteousness and
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joy. Pointing humanity to him is the
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most loving life giving act possible.
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Think of it like the sun. That is a great illustration.
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The sun does not shine to feed its own ego right it shines
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because it is the very nature of the sun to give light and life
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to the entire solar system. Spot on God would be unrighteous
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if he directed our highest affections toward anything less
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than the highest good which is himself.
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We would be settling for dirt when we could have gold.
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Yes the creature 's highest joy is found in the creator 's
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highest glory. God 's pursuit of his own glory
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and his pursuit of our joy are not competing interests.
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They are the exact same pursuit. They are heaven will not be a
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celebration of human potential it will be the everlasting
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praise of the lamb reflected in a multitude made like him by
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grace. That reframes everything about
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how we view our faith our salvation serves an infinitely
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greater purpose than just. Keeping us out of hell.
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It is so much bigger than that. It provides the son with a
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redeemed family that will spend eternity reflecting his glory.
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Which is the most beautiful reality imaginable let's?
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Pull all of this together and summarize the pastoral weight of
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this deep dive this text provides unshakable assurance
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for the suffering. It anchors the soul.
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It tells you that your pain is governed by a father who has
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loved you from before time. It crushes the pride of the
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self-righteous proving that we contribute nothing but sin to
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our salvation. And it demands rigorous holiness
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from the careless. Right proving that God does not
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predestine anyone to casual carnality.
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To you listening today this is a call to abandon all
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self-reliance. Stop looking inward at your
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fluctuating emotions or your daily performance for assurance.
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You will never find peace looking at yourself.
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Never look backward to the eternal decree of God and look
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forward to the guaranteed glorification of your body if
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you are outside of Christ relying on your own goodness the
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law stands ready to condemn you. So what should they do.
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Flee to the Lord Jesus Christ who casts out no one who comes
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to him in faith. But if you are in Christ rest
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entirely in the sovereign Crucible of grace he who
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foreknew you has predestined you and he will surely bring you
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safely home. I want to leave you with a final
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thought to Mull over. This is a good one to end on.
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Look at the most difficult chaotic or painful circumstance
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in your life right now. It might be a medical diagnosis
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a broken relationship a financial crisis or a deep
29:30
personal failure. We all have something like that.
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We do what changes in your mind when you stop viewing that
29:35
situation as a random accident and start viewing it as the
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precise instrument and eternal God is using to carve the
29:42
features of Christ into your soul.
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That changes everything. It really does thank you for
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joining us on this deep dive we will see you next time.