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What does it mean to be justified? Derek says to be justified means I’m “just-as-if-I’d never sinned.” God’s own righteousness has been reckoned to me as a gift. And this comes on the basis of my faith in what Christ accomplished through the cross and through His resurrection. No guilt, no shame, no punishment.

Derek describes this next stage as salvation from sin—from its guilt, its condemnation, its power, and its defilement. Salvation is a work of the Holy Spirit described by three successive phases: a washing or cleansing, a regeneration or a rebirth, and a renewal or a new creation. You must believe in your heart God raised Jesus from the dead, and you must confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord.

Today Derek moves this study from eternity into time as he explains God’s individual call on and looks at the how this impacts each of us. Called simply means to be invited or summoned. God confronts us with a call that demands a response. Our positive response leads to salvation and determines the whole course of our lives.

To be predestined means that God has arranged in advance the course that your life is to follow. Derek makes clear you are not an accident looking for a place to happen. Instead, you are part of an eternal plan. You’re destined to become a member of God’s family, and it all takes place through His grace and for His glory.

In this second stage Derek stresses that because God foreknew us, He chose us for His own purposes. He knows who we are and what we can be. As we say yes, He enables us to walk in His grace to fulfill those purposes. He foreknew you and chose you because He knows what you can accomplish together.

The first stage in this study to contemplate God’s foreknowledge. He knows everything about each of us. Derek here delves into the psalms to illustrate this by examining how we were formed. God knew every process our bodies would pass through and when each member would be formed. In like manner, He has a plan for each of us.

Using Romans 8:29–30 as his text, Derek begins to look at the seven successive stages of God’s plan for those who love Him, who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior, and who have become members of God’s family. The culmination of this plan is that we will share Christ’s glory and sit with Him on His throne throughout eternity.

Today Derek explains that God is behind and in control of the whole universe. He controls the stars, human history, the nations, and our individual lives. More important still, God has a plan for each one of our lives and He is working these out just as surely as He is controlling every other area of the universe.

Derek begins this new study by looking at who God is. Behind the entire universe there is a person, a Creator, who is also a Father. If we can embrace this, we will have a totally new perspective on ourselves, our lives, and everything that goes on around us. All things, including you, have their source and fulfillment in God.