Assurance is based upon God's eternal purpose for His people. God's eternal purpose for His people is their glorification, and that purpose shall not fail. We have here in these verses five links in the chain of redemption. This chain of five links cannot be broken because they are THE LINKS OF GOD'S ETERNAL PURPOSE. The first link is FOREKNOWLEDGE. This is not foresight; it is not foreknowledge of acts; it is foreknowledge of persons; it is to foreknow a person with the intention of blessing him. In foreknowledge, back in eternity, God set His heart on His people. The second link is PREDESTINATION. "For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." Those upon whom He set His heart, He determined that they would be made like the Lord Jesus Christ. The third link is the EFFECTUAL CALL, "Whom He did predestinate, them He also called. " This is the inward and invincible call of the Holy Spirit. This is the call that makes the invitation of the gospel accepted. This is the call of the Holy Spirit through the gospel, causing the gospel of Jesus Christ to be understood and appropriated; it is the call that makes a saint of a sinner; it is the lifegiving call that quickens the dead; it is the light-giving call that brings us from the power of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son of light and liberty. The fourth link is JUSTIFICATION. Faith is the effect of the effectual call and the cause of justification. we are justified by faith, but our faith was the result of the call of God. Then the final link in redemption's chain is GLORIFICATION. "And whom He justified, them He also glorified." And all of it is put in the past tense. The glorification is in the past tense because the apostle is writing from the standpoint of God's eternal purpose. And what God purposed back in eternity will just as surely be accomplished as if it had already been accomplished.
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