One of the most popular traditions of celebrating New Years is to make resolutions. A quick online definition of the noun resolution yields, 

“A firm decision to do or not to do something.”

A firm decision to do or not to do something is a resolution. And around New Year’s time, people all around the wold make (not so firm) decisions to lose weight, eat healthy, work out, help the poor, etc. Some of them go with the negative and decide to quit smoking, quit drinking soda, quit going to bed so late, quit social media, etc. 

What is so fascinating about the concept of resolutions is how similar the definition is to that of decree, 

“An official order issued by a legal authority.”

A decree is a resolution by someone or something with significant authority. The definition is the same, what is different is subject making the resolution. However, in a very real sense, a resolution is a decree. 
Why this is so important is because this allows us as Christians to be reminded this time of year of good and just decree of God. 

It is God who has determined all things. It is God who, before time began, established a decree. He established His resolution. This resolution was a plan whereby He would most glorify Himself. 

The most important thing in all of reality is that the Triune God of the universe receive all due glory and honor. And He has established a plan, a decree, to accomplish that; it has been resolved. 

Ephesians 1:11, “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will…”

All things are all working toward one counsel; all things are working according to a will which has established the flow of history. 

The decree of God is certainly a singular decree, however, it is multifaceted. 

There are many aspects of the decree that must take place and happen in order to perfectly fulfill it. And it is in these aspects that we take great delight and hope today, the first day of 2017. 

In God’s good and glorious resolution, what promises remain for us to look forward to as we witness His manifold witness unravel before our eyes?

Let me present only a few of the many blessings we have in Christ for the Saints to feast their eyes on and be encouraged by:

Matthew 16: 18, 

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

1 Corinthians 15: 50-58 

I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.,

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

2 Peter 3: 8-13, 

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Ephesians 2: 9-11,

Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Hebrews 10:12-14,

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 

The Christian Church will never be defeated, and will continue to prosper and be salt to the earth. 
We will be glorified and put off the sting of sin and death forever.
We will spend eternity with the Lord Jesus. 
Jesus will judge the earth, righting all wrongs, and then make a new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells. Jesus is winning history; every knee will bow to Him and confess His Lordship, and every enemy will be made a footstool at at His feet. 
Jesus has sufficiently sanctified and atoned for His people whom He has chosen.

This is where history is going. These things are what we are working toward. These things are what God is accomplishing. 

He made His resolution long ago, and He is accomplishing it now. 

So who else is excited for 2017?

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