We have learned that Romans 8 is the Mt. Everest of the Bible, and verses 29 & 30 represent its precipice, or peak. These two verses are the heart of the gospel message, and it is crucial that we have a proper understanding of these verses, or else the whole doctrine of salvation comes crashing down. An examination of church history shows that a misunderstanding of Romans 8:29-30 has led to many and varied heresies.  When pastors and Bible teachers have a high view of man and a low view of God, they start down the slippery slope toward heresy. Too often when we encounter ideas in Scripture that we must wrestle with, we want to take God off His throne and set Him on the couch beside us. The world views the idea of God being sovereign over all things as being illogical and anti-intellectual. 

However, rejecting the idea of God’s sovereignty releases the avalanche that leads to destruction. We want to think that we open our hearts to God, but Scripture is clear that God is the initiator of hearts being opened to Him. Acts 16:14 gives the example of God opening Lydia’s heart to listen to what was said by Paul. In fact all true belief is a result of the work of God. All that we are and all that we do comes from God. 1 Corinthians 11:12 declares that “all things are from God.”  We are already on the slippery slope if we don’t hold to the truth of the gospel, as simply declared in Scripture that God is holy, man is sinful and reconciliation with God is possible only by the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. At the bottom of the slippery slope is the conclusion that Jesus is just someone who can make our life better, or else we reject God altogether; both are disastrous.

For believers, God has a great expectation in these verses. We have an abiding security because of our ultimate purpose, that is, being conformed into the image of Christ and the promise of future glory. The theology of these two verses is at the summit of our understanding of Scripture. There is nothing we can do to secure our salvation.  Our salvation is founded and rooted in the mind of God. Because God is sovereign, we can be assured of our salvation and ultimate glorification. In Psalm 90, Moses described the limitless sovereignty of God as being “from everlasting to everlasting.”

How can we live a sanctified life empowered by the Holy Spirit in this sin-cursed world? How do we live in a post-Christian culture? The answer is to remember who God is, to remember what He has done, and to remember that our security is in God alone. Before time began, God sovereignly determined and called believers to be conformed into the image of Christ and to represent Him in the world. 

I. Conformed (v. 29a)

• To be like Christ

Ephesians 1:4 says that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” The primary purpose for our being saved is so that we would be conformed into the image of Christ, then we can be suitable ambassadors for Him (2 Corinthians 5:20). One pastor said it this way: “God is purpose driven and His saints are purpose given.” 

• To represent God

God is sanctifying believers because He wants them to look like Christ and be His ambassadors to the world. God is making us like Christ spiritually. Christ is referred to as being the firstborn from the dead. This does not mean the first person resurrected from the dead, for Scripture records others resurrected prior to Jesus. The firstborn means Christ is the most prominent, the preeminent One. (Colossians 1:18) Christ is the first to be resurrected with a glorified body, and He will be the firstborn among many brothers. Believers also hold a position of prominence in the world but not for our own glory, we are saved for God’s glory. We are to proclaim the message of salvation not only to persons in the world but also in the heavenly realms “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10) The church is to honor, obey, and glorify God while proclaiming the gospel to the world and heavenly realms.

II. Delight (v. 29a-30a)

It is God’s delight and His joy in saving people; it is His good pleasure (Luke 12:32). It is God’s joy to make Himself known to His children and to save them in a way that we see His holiness, His power, and His goodness. When we recognize that our salvation is all by Him and for His good pleasure, all we can do is praise Him. We cannot take pride in that we contributed to our salvation, that we were wise enough to recognize our need for Jesus, and we made the right decision.

• Foreknowledge

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined … those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified is known as the Golden Chain of Salvation. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones claimed that “Foreknowledge is the most important term of all 5 mentioned in this list because it is the first move in our direction and is determined and controlled by God.” 

We know from hermeneutics that foreknowledge has nothing to do with man. God is mentioned eight times in this chain and man not even once. To read into this passage the idea that man plays any part in his salvation is eisegesis – reading into Scripture perceived bias. The proper interpretation of Scripture is exegesis – reading out of Scripture its clear meaning. To think that we have anything to do with the foreknowledge of God is hermeneutical assassination.

Foreknowledge is not the same as foresight. God did not look down the corridors of time and see who would choose Him, so that He might choose them. God is omniscient, He knows everything; it is impossible for Him to learn anything. When God foreknew a believe, He didn’t see a decision, He saw a person whom He loved before the foundations of the world. We also know that God doesn’t choose anyone because that person chooses, or accepts, Him. The perspicuity (clarity) of Scripture reveals the heart of man: His heart is wicked (Jeremiah 17:9); all have sinned (Romans 3:23, 5:12); no one is righteous (Romans 3:10); man is dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1), etc.

The final nail in the coffin of the notion that man can choose God is what Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Ephesians 2:4-9 explains that the only way we can choose to follow God is if He takes our dead spirits and makes them alive.

We have seen what foreknowledge is not, so now we look at what foreknowledge is. Foreknowledge, as used in this passage, means to love intimately beforehand. That is, God chose to love His chosen long before they were born. Consider Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”, and Psalm 139:13, “you knitted me together in my mother's womb.” God knows His children intimately. God did not choose Israel for anything good in them, it was because He chose to love them (Deuteronomy 7:7). He chose to love them only (Amos 3:2). To those whom Jesus does not know, He says in Matthew 7:23, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Jesus is saying, I never loved you, depart from Me.

Foreknowledge also carries the idea of ultimate purpose. Another meaning of the word foreknowledge is foreordained. Acts 2:23 states that Jesus was delivered up to be crucified “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” Peter wrote to the elect exiles that they were scattered throughout Asia Minor “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1Peter 1:1-2). God sets His love on a person for a specific purpose. When we read in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell cannot stand against the church, Jesus is saying that God will snatch believers from Satan’s stronghold and, also, that He has foreordained the church to defeat the forces of darkness. God has chosen to love His people, they are foreordained to love Him, and He has foreordained that they will represent Him in the world. 

When we get to Romans 8:31-39, we will see that, because of God’s foreknowledge, believers are secure in their salvation; it is not that they won’t fall away, it is that they can’t fall away. Nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

• Predestination

God delights in His predestination. His predestination is not only that we be saved but, also, we become increasing like Jesus, to live a sanctified, set apart, life. While becoming like Jesus, we represent Him in the world, thus fulfilling our purpose. The ability for us to become like Jesus was made possible only because Jesus was handed over to be crucified; the Jews were allowed by God to do whatever God’s hand and His plan had predestined to take place. (Acts 4:27-28) This was Christ’s destiny. Our destiny from eternity past to eternity future is to be like Christ. 1 John 3:2 states that, when Jesus returns, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is. Anyone who claims to be a Christian must possess the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23). All who are predestined by God for salvation will display such fruit. The fruit may be in various stages of maturity, but it will be present. If you see fruit in your life, give praise to God, your savior.

Christianity is not about a decision one makes for Jesus. When we see His work in our salvation, this mindset is an affront to God’s holiness. God delights in converting sinners, He delights in loving sinners, He delights in watching sinners being conformed into the image of His Son, He delights in all these things because they display His glory. 

• Calling

There are two aspects of God’s calling. The first aspect is the outward call where the gospel is proclaimed to the world. We are commanded to proclaim this call to everyone. Romans 10:14 says, “But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” Some hearers have ears to hear, while others do not. The second aspect of the calling is the inward call. Man proclaims the gospel, but God has already prepared the hearts of true believers so that they will hear and receive the gospel message. 2 Timothy 1:9 says that God “saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace.” Jesus declared in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Jesus then says that His sheep are secure in their salvation, no one can snatch them out of His hand, nor from the Father’s hand. 

When we respond to the inward call, we begin to understand the gospel, to recognize our sin, and to see the chasm between us and God. At that moment, we cannot know that the gospel call began before the beginning of time. However, once we are saved, we want to know God and how we can live to please Him. We struggle when we come to difficult passages such as Romans 8:29-30, where God’s sovereignty over salvation is revealed. We can be assured of our ultimate glorification because of the things that God has been doing for us. However, if you reject the call of God, you will not be a part of His kingdom. 

• Justified

It is God’s delight to call those whom He has predestined and foreknew; it is also His delight to justify them. God makes us right with Himself – He balances the scales of justice. By repentance and faith, we sre justified before God, the penalty of sin satisfied, and we are granted the righteousness of God. We can know we are justified as we see our life being conformed into the image of Christ. 

• Glorified

The last phrase of verse 30 says, “those whom he justified he also glorified.” In God’s mind all aspects of the Golden Chain are past tense. It is finished, confirming our security in Him. Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:14 that God called us through the gospel that we might obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the destiny of the believer.

How do we apply all this in our lives? The answer is to live out our purpose: to call others to salvation, to grow in the fruit of the Spirit, to repent of sin, to be obedient to God… This leads to a glorious, unimaginable inheritance centered around Jesus. Then we will gaze upon the beauty of the Lord (Psalm 27) and live in a way that reflects His beauty. When we live this way, the world will want to know why we have hope. Then we tell them of a God who delights in saving people.

Selah:

1. What is your first reaction to hearing that you were not saved by accepting Christ?

2. It has been said that all evangelicals believe in predestination. The only area of disagreement is, what is the basis of predestination. What is the basis?

3. How do others see the quality of your ambassadorship for Christ?

4. How do you see the quality of your ambassadorship for Christ?