Rom. 8:28–30
I don’t believe Calvinists are ogres who just want to believe in a God who sends people to hell willy-nilly. I believe many are arriving at their conclusions through sincere wrestling with the Scriptures, and if you’ve done any research into the topic, you have to admit that it’s not always so cut-and-dry as some want to make it.
One accusation against non-Calvinists is that we believe in an impotent God—as if our choices control the omnipotent God. No! He is perfectly in control. Here’s how I’ve described it in the past:
They think weview God as limited, but their version is that God is “bigger” than our God because He controls all. Yet I believe in an even bigger version in that yes, God controls all, and He does so by also allowing us a perfectly free will.
I appreciate those who can wrestle with the Scriptures that deal with the sovereign guidance of God in the affairs of men yet leave man’s free will totally free. Here’s one such quote about Romans 8:28.
Quote about Romans 8:28–30 from Romans commentary by David Cloud:
– Consider the eternal scope of the promise (Ro. 8:29-30). The word “for” ties Romans 8:28 together with Romans 8:29-30. All things work together for good to them that love God because they are the objects of eternal election. They are foreknown, predestinated, and called (Ro. 8:29-30); they are the elect (Ro. 8:33). They are elect according to God’s foreknowledge (“whom he did foreknow,” compare 1 Pe. 1:2). God has had them in mind forever. They are chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world” (Ac. 15:18). All events in human history are under the sovereign control of a God who “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,” and the redeemed are “predestined according to the purpose” of this God (Eph. 1:11). The eternal plan that God is working out in history is “that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ” (Eph. 1:10). So everything that happens in the life of the redeemed is encompassed within this great eternal program. The better we understand this, the more effectually we can live our lives for His glory and do His will and face every trial with confidence. The believer can know that he is in God’s hands (Joh. 10:27-29) and his times are in God’s hands (Ps. 31:15) and all times are in God’s hand, because He is the Creator of the times (“he changeth the times and the seasons,” Da. 2:21). Jesus said the Father has put the times in his own power (Ac. 1:7). God’s redeemed are not mere cogs in a giant wheel. They are not merely caught up in, and carried along by, a flood of events over which they have no control. They are in the hands of the One who “sitteth upon the flood” and is “king forever” (Ps. 29:11).
The sons of God are foreknown and predestinated (Ro. 8:29-30).
- This is the doctrine of God’s election. The redeemed are called “the elect” in verse 33.
- Election encompasses eternity. In eternity past (so to speak) the redeemed were foreknown and predestinated, and in the present they are called and justified, and in eternity future they are glorified.
- Election is based on God’s foreknowledge. “Foreknowledge” is the Greek proginosko, which is a combination of pro (before) and ginosko (to know). God declares the end from the beginning (Isa. 46:10). The word “prognosis” is used in medical practice to forecast the outcome of a disease. To give a prognosis requires knowledge of how a disease progresses and what the patient will experience. God’s foreknowledge as the basis for election is also described in 1 Peter 1:2, “elect according to the foreknowledge of God.” If election has something to do with God’s foreknowledge, which it plainly and emphatically does, then there is no contradiction between God’s election and man’s choice as described in the “whosoever” passages (e.g., Mt. 11:28; Mr. 16:15-16; Joh. 3:15, 16, 18, 36; 5:24; 6:40; 11:26; 12:46; Ac. 10:43; 16:31; Ro. 1:16; 3:22, 26; 4:5; 9:33; 10:10-11, 32; 1 Pe. 2:6; 1 Jo. 5:1, 13; Re. 22:17). In these passages we find the answer to the question, “What does God foreknow?” The answer is that He foreknows who will believe the gospel. We see this in 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel…” God’s choosing is through belief of the gospel. He chooses those who believe the gospel through the ministry of the Spirit (enlightening, convicting, drawing). We see this in Titus 1:1, “according to the faith of God’s elect.” God’s elect are those who have faith.
In Acts 2:23, prognosis or foreknowledge is clearly distinguished from God’s “determinate counsel.” Yet Calvinism confuses these two things and defines foreknowledge as foreordination. John Calvin commented on 1 Peter 1:2 as follows, “God knew before the world was created whom he had elected for salvation. … Hence, when Peter calls them elect according to the precognition of God, he intimates that the cause of it depends on nothing else but on God alone, for he of his own free will has chosen us.” When Calvin says election depends on nothing but God alone, he is saying that election has nothing to do with man’s faith in the gospel. He is saying that a sinner believes because of election and that he is not elect because he believes.
Calvin comments on Romans 8:29 as follows, “It hence follows, that this knowledge is connected with God’s good pleasure; for he foreknew nothing out of himself, in adopting those whom he was pleased to adopt; but only marked out those whom he had purposed to elect.” Again, Calvin defines foreknowledge to be foreordination, but there is no authority for Calvin’s doctrine in the text itself. Neither Paul nor Peter say that God’s foreknowledge “depends on nothing but Himself.” Neither Paul nor Peter define election as “sovereign.” To the contrary, in both of these major passages on election, we are taught that election begins with God’s foreknowledge, not with His foreordination. Calvin would have Paul saying, “For whom he did sovereignly predestinate, he also did predestinate,” and Peter saying, “Elect according to the sovereign foreordination and predestination of God…” Calvin reads Augustinian theology into Scripture. (Calvin said, “If I were inclined to compile a whole volume from Augustine, I could easily show my readers, that I need no words but his,” Institutes, Book III, chap. 22.) Calvinism adds such terms as “sovereign” and “determinate will” to God’s election, but this is based on human reasoning.
- Election is to be “predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.” “Predestinate” is the Greek proorizo, which is “from pro, before, and horizo, to determine; thus, to determine or decree beforehand.” It is translated “determined before to be done” (Ac. 4:28). God has determined that those who believe the gospel will be conformed to Christ’s image. “Conformed” is summorphos, which is “from sun, together with, and morphe, form” (Complete Word Study Bible). It means to take the form of Christ, which will happen at the resurrection. This is “that he might be the firstborn of many brethren.”
God has determined that those who believe on Christ will be children (Eph. 1:5) and will have an inheritance (Eph. 1:11), being joint-heirs with Christ. This is the fundamental truth of election. God’s eternal plan is “that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ” (Eph. 1:10). He sent His Son to make the atonement for the fallen creation so that sinners might be redeemed and glorified as part of a new creation of which Christ is the Head. New Testament believers are “in Christ” as the firstfruits of the new creation. Christ made the atonement and rose from the dead as the firstborn of the new creation. The new creation will culminate in a “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Pe. 3:13). Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. After He rose, he said to Mary Magdalene, “go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (Joh. 20:17). He called the believing disciples “brethren.” They are brethren of the eternal Son of God through redemption! He called His eternal Father “my Father and your Father.” This is God’s plan in Christ. “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11). In this present life, believers are “in Christ” positionally and “accepted in the beloved” before the Father, and they are growing in the image of Christ by practical sanctification, and in the resurrection life they will be conformed to Christ’s image in glorification and moral perfection.
- Election involves calling (“moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called”). Calling is spoken of in two ways in Scripture. First, there is a general call for all to be saved. All sinners are loved by God and called by the gospel, which is to be preached to all men (Mr. 16:15). Second, there is the call in Romans 8:30 of the foreknown and predestinated. It is the call of those who believe the gospel. In one sense, all are called, but in another sense, only those who believe are called, because only those who believe are saved (Mr. 16:16; Joh. 3:16, 18, 36, etc.). So it can be said that “many be called, but few chosen” (Mt. 20:16; 22:14). The chosen are those who receive God’s gracious gift of salvation through the gospel. The “hand” that receives the gift is saving faith. The redeemed are “called, and chosen, and faithful” (Re. 17:14).
- Election involves justification (“and whom he called, them he also justified”). Those who are called and believe are justified. They are declared righteous on the basis of Christ’s atonement. They are no longer in Adam but “in Christ,” having a new standing before God. “He justifies us, gives us a standing before Himself so impeccable, so immaculate, so pure and spotless that no power in earth or hell or heaven can bring any accusation against us” (John Phillips).
- Election results in glorification (“and whom he justified them he also glorified”). Glorified is eternal resurrection glory. It is stated here as an accomplished fact, even though it is yet future. All of these verbs (predestinate, called, justified, glorified) are aorist indicative which indicates “punctiliar action (action that happens at a specific point in time) in the past” (Complete Word Study Bible). In God’s eyes, the believer is already glorified. He is already seated in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 2:6). Thus, there cannot be any possibility of “losing one’s salvation.” Those who believe in such a thing do not understand the glorious reality of what salvation encompasses.
- Election produces confidence and motivates to love for God. Election produces life-changing wisdom in the child of God who understands and believes it. That I have been in the mind of God from eternity, that He has known me, thought about me, planned things for me, made me in the womb according to His own blueprint (Ps. 139:13-18), predestinated me to eternal glory in His beloved Son, how amazing this is, how humbling, how thrilling! How it motivates me to know the God who knows me, how it stirs me to prove that good and acceptable and perfect will He has ordained for me, how it makes me want to surrender all to my Creator and Redeemer! Knowing that I am eternally elect of God does not make me want to sin and to live selfishly and carelessly. It makes me want to please God.
–Pastor Ryan
