Studying His Word and His Works

Listen to the study here: Romans 8:29-31

Read here: Romans 8

Review

• Calvin on the theme of Romans: “Man’s only righteousness is the mercy of God in Christ, when it is offered by the Gospel and received by faith.” Romans 1:17 and elsewhere.
• IMPORTANT: Paul wrote the letter to the saints (1:7), and the letter is about the gospel, which is a reminder we need to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. 
• Luther: Simul iustus et peccator = At the same time, righteous and a sinner! Romans 3:23-25.
• In Ch. 1-3 Paul shows us our unrighteousness, and God’s wrath against that, and then switches to Christ’s righteousness as our covering, the propitiation of our sins (Romans 3:25) as the final sacrifice for sin, fulfilling the promise to Abraham, who had faith before any works.
• Faith being “counted” or “credited to our account” as righteousness is mentioned 11 times in Chapter 4! If “none are righteous” as Paul wrote in Romans 3:10, then this saving faith must be a gift from God.
• Ch. 5, We now have peace with God, access to God, and hope, because of what Christ did for us while we were weak(v. 6), sinners (v. 8), and enemies (v. 10). Christ did this “at the right time,” (v. 6), connecting Christ’s work on the cross and God’s plan of redemption to real history (not just a myth or legend).
• Atonement(5:6-11): Jesus satisfying God’s wrath for us through His sacrificial death on the cross.
• Ch. 5 and 6 describe federalism, this idea of one man making a difference, for righteousness (Jesus) or wickedness (Adam). 
• Ch 6 ended with lots of words pointing to the new road we are now on with Christ, the sanctification road.
  • Service is the key word, “slaves” used 8 times.
  • “Present yourselves”(5), “Leads to”(5).
• Sproul: “our regeneration, our rebirth was the work of one Person, God. It was not a joint venture; but from the moment we take our first breath of regenerated spiritual life, it  becomes a joint effort.” the work of one Person is what salvation is about. The joint venture is what sanctification is about. Ch.6 ends and we continue into Ch.7 describing what this “sanctification road” looks like to walk down. We were on the sin road that leads to death, but now we are on the grace road that leads to eternal life.
• Chapter 8 is describing our assurance as Christians in eternal life. We are a family, we are His, adopted, brothers with Christ the firstborn, which for Christ is not genetics-related (God doesn’t have a wife!), it connects to federalism and being begotten, not made (John 1). In Christ, we are “marked safe from Hell.” There is no eternal damnation for us, but there is for the unsaved which is why we need to pray and then do to get the gospel out.  Ch. 8 describes the reality of the world’s current condition, tainted by Adam’s sin. It does not work as perfectly as it did originally. At His return, it will be restored, we will receive new bodies(v. 23). Our current body is destined to die because of sin(v.10), but our souls are born again because of Christ (v. 10) and we are adopted into His family, brothers with Christ, who is the firstborn or preeminent.

Intro

• As we get deeper into controversial topics, I thought it would be helpful to list some of the key words/phrases in what theologians call “the golden chain,” supporting each with other verses so that you can see this is not an isolated topic in the New Testament.
  • Foreknew: Romans 11:2, 1 Peter 1:2
  • Predestined: 1 Cor. 2:7, Eph. 1:5, 1:11, Romans 9:23
  • To be conformed to Christ’s image: Phil. 3:21, 1 Cor. 15:49, Col. 3:10, 1 John 3:2
  • Christ the firstborn: Col. 1:15, 1:18, Hebrews 1:6, Rev. 1:5
  • Justified: 1 Cor 6:11
  • Glorified: John 17:22, Hebrews 2:10
• Key words: God/He (11), those (5), also (4), us/we (3), predestined, justified (2)
• A big theme of Romans 8 is Deus pro nobis = God for us. Ch. 8 started by saying there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, so we continue to see the main emphasis here is the assurance of our salvation, but also the damnation awaiting those who hate God, and THAT is a reason to share the gospel. We also discussed being careful about thinking we have to identify with a certain group, like Calvin or Arminius, but instead focus on serving Christ, repenting daily, taking up our cross daily and following Him.
• Sproul reminds that we are believers today “not because we made God’s call effectual in our lives; it is because God did.” That’s what verse 28 is saying, we were called according to HIS purpose, not ours. And what is a purpose?  It’s a plan, a desired end. God has a goal in mind with calling us. I Thessalonians 4:3 says the goal of this plan is your sanctification. AND the goal of sanctification is that He would be glorified through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 4:11). That is why this calling is referred to as an “effectual calling,” a call that produces a result, a calling we couldn’t resist and that brought about our salvation, so that God would be glorified. 
• Finally, note this “golden chain” is past tense! It’s already done. God’s plan is infinite and eternal, something our finite and mortal brains can’t fully comprehend.
• Verses 29-30, The Golden Chain
  • The pattern here of foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justifying and glorifying, it is a both/and pattern, not a hierarchy where foreknowledge is first, predestination second etc. The repetition of and and also confirm this. This both/and theme is everywhere in Romans and is an important reminder of God’s complexity. We want Him to do one thing at a time, but He does infinite things, all the time! And, regarding the actions listed in the golden chain, God DID these things already. Let’s look a little closer at each of the key words of the golden chain.
  • Foreknew– Greek is progino. It is good to remember that ultimately, God wants a relationship, not a man-based religion. Sproul says we could say here “ ‘Those whom He foreloved [those whom He knew in a personal, intimate, redemptive sense from all eternity] He predestined.’ “
    • Read also Romans 11:2, and 1 Peter 1:2 and surrounding verses for more biblical context on how the word is used.
  • Predestined– Greek is proorizo, which in Greek vocabulary means “a sovereign determination in which a fixed or definite limit is sovereignly decreed.”
    • Read also 1 Cor. 2:7, Eph. 1:5, 1:11, Romans 9:23 (repeated from the Intro).
    • God’s plan in predestination is for us to be conformed to Christ-likeness through our relationship with Christ. It is for His glory, so here IS where the hierarchy matters, that Christ is the firstborn among many brothers. Firstborn here is not about genetics, it’s about federalism. The preeminence of Christ, the supremacy of Christ described in Hebrews 1.
    • Sproul: “The only reason we find anywhere in Scripture as to why anyone is saved is for Christ’s sake.”
      • Those whom the Father gives to the Son come to the Son, that’s what the Bible says (John 17:2). 
    • One conclusion to draw, that is also consistent with the Bible and the overall theme in Romans, is God’s choosing is not based on some foreseen thing we have done or will do later, some requirement or condition that WE did or will do later. It’s HE DID, not we did. We are not predestined by race or religion or nation or family heritage, but by the good pleasure of His will (Eph 1:5). In Ch. 9, Paul continues explaining predestination in greater and probably even more controversial detail.
  • Called– God calls all whom He predestines. Again, these verses seem to discuss what God does, not what we do, at all. Otherwise, sanctification would be part of this golden chain. We don’t call God first, He calls us and we cry out to Him. We don’t justify ourselves or glorify ourselves, He does that. Sanctification though is the team effort. It’s the “setting of our minds” on Him that we can do ONLY because of the Holy Spirit at work in us, the beautiful and mysterious and very real relationship we have with Christ when we are born again.
    • Now, think about something. This calling of the “those” definitely doesn’t sound like the “whoever believes” of John 3:16. But John 3:16 can’t be false and this true or vice/versa. So, what’s going on here? Perhaps, some of this goes back to Romans 1, where God basically “gives up” on those who are unthankful and do not acknowledge Him as God. Or Romans 2:4 and His kindness is meant to lead us to repentance. So, we know God is patient and kind with us. And since the purpose there is to lead us to repentance, then it does sound like His kindness is for everyone. I think the most important thing to consider here is that God initiates. God alone is righteous. Salvation is His work, not ours. He calls, we only respond because the Holy Spirit is already at work in us. The calling is an effectual calling, a calling that produces a result, which is salvation. And that may not be a perfectly satisfying answer, but I’m going to trust the Bible is true and trustworthy and God’s ways are more unsearchable than I may prefer sometimes, something Paul reminds of at the end of Ch. 11.  
  • Justified– God is both just and the justifier (Romans 3:26). We don’t justify ourselves haha, although we do spend a lot of time justifying our actions! Like the driver saying “well officer I had to drive 90 in a 35 because I was late for work,” etc. One great conclusion from the golden chain is that, if God has called us, and we have been born again, repented of our sins and believe, and are walking the sanctification road, then we can be 100% confident that we are also justified. In other words, we cannot “lose our salvation,” as some argue. You are either saved, or you are not. People can have a false conversion, because Satan is a deceiver after all. But if you are truly saved, you will not lose that, ever, and that should bring great peace. 
  • Glorified – all the justified are also glorified. We will “fall asleep” at some point, our souls to Heaven and our physical bodies returning to dust, but at Christ’s return, we will receive a new and glorified body(I Cor 15:53-57 and elsewhere). 
• Verse 31
  • Paul asks: What then shall we say to these things? Deus pro nobis (God for us) is what we say!
    • And of course verse 31 is not saying nobody will ever rise up to oppose us or persecute us; this is an eternal declaration. Paul just got done writing the golden chain to illustrate yet again how we are “marked safe from Hell.” He is saying no one can drag us into Hell with them. He is saying that someone may hate Christians (they hate God really) so much that they kill you, but that is only temporary. Nobody and no thing can keep you from God’s eternal love, which is a major theme of the rest of Chapter 8. 
• Conclusions
  • Remember that one of the main things the Bible describes is the righteous vs the wicked. Righteousness is through faith alone, a gift of saving faith given to us by God. Righteousness is from God alone, credited to our account (Romans 4). We have no righteousness in and of ourselves. Adam was born righteous, but fell to temptation. After that, Romans 5:12 says sin entered the world, and death with it, through Adam. Only Christ was tempted and did not fall, a perfect sacrifice was needed for our sins. His righteousness is imputed to us as a free gift. The gift is for all who believe, and for those who believe, which are the called, they are led to repentance by the Holy Spirit. They don’t lead themselves to God, God leads them to Himself. God knew beforehand who would believe and who would not. He knew who He would call and who He wouldn’t call. I think we have to trust His effectual calling, but also trust His kindness leading us to repentance (Romans 2:4 and elsewhere). There is a patience there, a giving people time to repent and believe. If God were impatient and unkind, humans would be extinct. But, since God IS patient with us, we need to be patient too as we read through Romans. We won’t have all our questions answered immediately, won’t understand the meaning of every word used, but we can trust that God has saved us and there is no condemnation now or ever for believers. We are forever His.
• Up next, Romans 8:31-39.