The Golden Chain

Romans 8:29–30 ESV

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

The Good of our Calling

Romans (The Golden Chain of Salvation for a Christ-Shaped Family (vv. 28–30))

For those who love God, God—the implied subject of the verb synergeō—works together everything for their benefit.

An important pastoral note is that it does not always look or feel that way. It is often hard to discern God’s goodness in the midst of a throbbing pain of grief or in the uncertainty of an oncology ward. However, at the end of history, in light of a glorious eternity, the goodness of God’s purposes will be fully understood

God has a plan for our effectual calling.

God Lovers are those who have been called by God.

God now gives His purpose by way of a Sequence.

Nine Big Questions of Every Worldview

Author Darrell Johnson, drawing inspiration from James Sire and N.T. Wright, says that every worldview is asking and trying to answer the following nine questions:

1. What is prime reality? What is the "really real"? 2. Who or what are we? What does it mean to be a human being? 3. Is there such a thing as "morality," right and wrong? If so, what is its basis; how does one know the good and the bad? 4. What is the meaning of history? Or, is there any meaning? 5. What is wrong with us? Something is off—what is it? 6. Is there a solution; can things be fixed? By whom? How? How quickly? 7. Is there a God? If so, can this God be known? And is this God involved in the world, especially relative to human suffering? 8. What happens to a human being at death? 9. What time is it? "There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven" (Eccles 3:1). Where are we in the flow of history?

The Golden Chain of Our Salvation

1. The Foreknowledge of God

Before there was anything there was God in all His triune person Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (EXNihilo the uncreated God)

God knew you from the Beginning.

God set His affection on you from Eternity.

Down through the ages people have struggled with the concept of luck and fortune. You can plan your life to a degree, but there are random forces beyond your control.

The Greeks saw good and bad luck as ultimate forces above and beyond even the gods. The Stoics advised grim resignation in the face of adversity. Epictetus and the Buddha saw the problem in desire, and taught that we should eliminate it, and so become impervious to misfortune.

Commentators have therefore reminded us that the Hebrew verb ‘to know’ expresses much more than mere intellectual cognition; it denotes a personal relationship of care and affection.

When God ‘knows’ people, he watches over them, and when he ‘knew’ the children of Israel in the desert, what is meant is that he cared for them.

Indeed, Israel was the only people out of all the families of the earth whom Yahweh had ‘known’, that is, loved, chosen and formed a covenant with.

God knew John the Baptist as he lept in Elizabeth’s womb.

We are fearfully made and intricately woven by God in our mothers womb. (Psalm 139)

*The Foreknown are foreloved by God.

John Murray writes: ‘ “Know” … is used in a sense practically synonymous with “love” … “Whom he foreknew” … is therefore virtually equivalent to “whom he foreloved.

Foreknowledge is ‘sovereign, distinguishing love’. This fits in with Moses’ great statement: ‘The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples … But it was because the LORD loved you.…’ The only source of divine election and predestination is divine love.

According to Scripture even Faith is a give from God.

Ephesians 2:8 ESV

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

Therefore, you cannot have saving faith unless God has gifted it to you by His infinite grace and mercy.

John 6:44 ESV

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

So, you cannot even come to Christ unless the Father first draws them there.

Philippians 1:29 ESV

29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

Your belief in God has been given to you by God.

In fact even good works performed by believers are prepared beforehand by God.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

*Foreknowledge is the Divine Active Delight of God.

The Divine active delight of God’s foreknowledge.

God set His love on many who have already been born and many yet to be born to be saved.

ABRAHAM

Genesis 18:19 ESV

19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV

5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

John 10:14 ESV

14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,

2 Timothy 2:19 ESV

19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”

“The term prognosis [foreknowledge] reveals the fact that in his purpose according to election the persons are not the objects of God’s ‘bare foreknowledge’ but of his ‘active delight

NOTE: At this point we must refrain from reading into the text debates about divine sovereignty, the basis of election, and human free will.

While the text no doubt raises the question for readers, even so, answering it is not Paul’s main concern.

Suffice it to say, God’s foreknowledge here is not a question of whether persons may or may not answer his call, but is simply an intimate foreknowing of the persons themselves

Paul later says about Israel, “God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew,” with no reference to how or why he foreknew them (Rom 11:2

2. The predestined of God.

Clearly, a decision is involved in the process of becoming a Christian, but it is God’s decision before it can be ours.

This is not to deny that we ‘decided for Christ’, and freely, but to affirm that we did so only because he had first ‘decided for us’.

We are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Salvation Note:

God’s predestination here is not an absolute decree to elect some and not others, but highlights that God’s redemptive work takes place at his initiative and isn’t merely a response to a human decision (see esp. Rom 9:11; 1 Cor 2:7; Eph 1:5, 11)

Romans 9:11 ESV

11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—

Be careful in overthinking the goal behind foreknowing and predetermining.

There will be a people “conformed to the image of his Son” in order that Christ “might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.”

In other words, God’s before-the-ages plan was to create a Christ-shaped family, a renewed humanity modeled on the Son.

Christ, as the “firstborn,” has preeminence and supremacy over all things, specifically, over the glorified saints, to whom he is like an older brother.

*You are Becoming Miniature Jesus-es

Every follower of Christ should not look the same spiritually next year as they did this year.

We are all constantly growing to become a better image bearer of Jesus Christ.

The term predestination fixes our thought more definitely on the purpose for which they were elected and on the means of attaining it.

That goal is not just “to enter heaven at last” but “to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.

CONFORMED [Gk. sýmmorphos (Rom. 8:29), syschēmatízō (12:2; 1 Pet. 1:14)]; AV also “fashioning yourselves according to” (1 Pet. 1:14); NEB SHAPED (Rom. 8:29), “adapt yourselves … to the pattern of” (12:2), “let your characters be shaped … by” (1 Pet. 1:14); see also Phil. 3:10, 21.

These references illustrate the difference between Gk. morphḗ, form reflecting inner nature, and schḗma, the merely outward fashion.

Note especially Rom. 12:2: “Be not conformed [mḗ syschēmatízesthe] to this age, but be transformed [metamorphoústhe] by the renewal of your mind.”

Basically the required transformation is not man’s doing but God’s work in us.

Is this not the same though expressed in 2 Corinthians 3:18

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The renewal which Paul is describing is the ongoing process that is happening now, not just in the future.

If the gradual renewal of the believer is not what Paul had in mind here then would a key part of the chain be broken, namely sanctification.

I believe that the conformation into the image of His Son of which the apostle speaks is sanctification.

Our Own Experience confirms that we Believe in the Divine Sovereignty of God as J.I. Packer confirms in his essay “Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.”

2 Facts confirm This.

1. You Give Thanks for your Conversion

Now why do you do that? Because you know in your Heart that God was entirely responsible for it. You did not save yourself, He did that, God did that for you.

2. You Acknowledge that God is Sovereign in your Salvation.

You pray for the salvation of others. You ask God to work in them everything necessary for their Salvation.

So our thanksgiving and intercession prove that we believe in God’s divine Sovereignty.

ON OUR FEET WE MAY ALL HAVE ARGUMENTS ABOUT IT, BUT ON OUR KNEES WE ALL AGREE!

Arguments Against Predestination

Predestination is said to foster Arrogance: Since it is alleged that God’s elect boast in their favored status. However, on the contrary, predestination excludes our boasting. Paul continued to boast of nothing but the cross of Christ alone, and remained humbled that God would save Him the worst of sinners. Humbled before the cross we desire to live the rest of lives to the praise and glory of God alone.

Predestination is said to Foster Uncertainty:it is said that this fosters an anxiety in people as to whether they are saved or not. But this is entirely not true, if a person is unsaved they are unconcerned about their eternal destiny, until, or unless the Holy Spirit brings them to the point of conviction over their sins and need for a Savior. If they are believers thought, even when they are passing through a period of doubt, they know that their security lies only in the eternal predestining will of God.

Predestination is said to Foster Apathy: If Salvation is entirely Gods work and not ours, then people will argue that all human responsibility before God has been undermined. This is not so, because we know that scripture makes it abundantly clear that God’s Sovereignty in no way negates human responsibility. Instead the two truths lie side by side.

Jesus declared that no one can come to Him unless the father draws Him to himself. (John 6:44).

And that you refuse to come to Him and have eternal life. (John 5:40).

Why do people not come to Jesus? Is it that they cannot? Or is it that they will not?

The only answer that is compatible with Jesus teaching is both.

4. Predestination is said to Foster Complacency: if God has predestined us for Salvation why should we not live as we please, without moral restraint?

Paul already dealt with this problem in Romans 6. Paul reminds us that God chose us before the foundation of the world that we should be Holy and blameless in His sight.

5. Predestination is said to Foster Narrow Mindedness:Some would say that we become absorbed only in ourselves. However, the opposite is the case. The reason that God called Abraham and his one family was not for their blessing only, but that through them all the nations of the earth might be blessed.

God made us His own people, not that we should be His favorites, but that we should be His witnesses, in Jerusalem, Judea, and to the very ends of the earth. To proclaim the one who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

3. The Effectually Calling of God

The Effective Call and the General Call of God

*The General Call of God

The General call is the gospel preached indiscriminately, and the knowledge of God found in creation and conscience.

*The Effectual Call of God

The particular (effectual) call is the inward, spiritual call of God to the elect that is simultaneous with regeneration. All those God has chosen in eternity are called particularly by God, and this call is effectual in its power and outcome.

Through the call of God, a sinner’s heart is regenerated and her will is liberated; because of this, the effectual call logically precedes conversion, the exercising of faith in Christ.

All those who are called in this way will be justified and, ultimately, glorified, and all of the glory goes to God who works this change in us by his call.

Union with Christ Diagram

*The General Call can be Resisted

There are those who hear the gospel every Sunday yet still do not believe with a Saving Faith. Not everyone who hears the gospel believes in Christ.

Stephen, just before he was martyred, said this much. “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you” (Acts 7:51).

This was not new with Stephen, however, for even Jesus experienced such rejection: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!” (Matt. 23:37).

*The Effectual Call of God

As the word is proclaimed (gospel call) and falls on the ears of its hearers, God effectually works in their hearts. God is calling them, wooing them to His son by the power of the Holy spirit.

1). At the proper time God calls those whom he has chosen from eternity past for Salvation. Unlike the general call that goes out to all people, the effectual call falls fresh on those whose hearts are His. Like in John 10 the shepherd calls and the sheep hear and know His voice and follow.

2). It is effectual in its power and outcome. God’s call does not fail. Just as His predestining will comes to fruition, His effectual call is not dependent on the sinner but is effectually dependent on Jesus Christ alone who saves.

But when he is effectually called and regenerated by God, his will is set free so that he can and will repent and trust in Christ. That means, then, that God’s effectual call, and with it regeneration itself, must logically precede conversion (faith and repentance) in the order of salvation.

*Remember that we cannot come to Christ on our own, unless the Father draws us to Himself.

Cultural Note: This is why we cannot choose Salvation for someone else through having them sprinkled or baptized. We cannot choose Christ apart from God’s calling us to Himself.

Not that you chose Him but that He first loved, and chose you from the foundation of the earth for Salvation.

4. The Justification of God

The doctrine of justification concerns God’s gracious judicial verdict in advance of the day of judgment, pronouncing guilty sinners, who turn in self-despairing trust to Jesus Christ, forgiven, acquitted of all charges and declared morally upright in God’s sight.

Note: This is a Forensic term used, to describe evidence to prove someones guilt or innocense.

1).God the Absolute Standard: Before God’s law humans stand condemned and there is no way that they can put themselves in a right standing with God.

2). Humans Guilty - Condemned and Helpless: Human beings, created in God’s image and accountable to God, all fall far short of that ultimate standard of righteousness. God’s assessment of the human condition is beyond dispute: no one is good or righteous. Even people’s best efforts are viewed as filthy rags

3. The Dilemma how can a person be made right with God: Job posed the question to his friends, “But how can a man be in the right before God?” (Job 9:2) He has provided a righteous way for declaring sinners righteous in his sight while remaining scrupulously fair and true to his own righteous character (Rom 1:16-17; 3:21-26).

4. Jesus the God-man - the sinners Representative and Substitute: It is known as the Great Exchange, where both the sins of his people were put to Christs account and paid the price, at the same time the righteousness of Christ obedience to the Father in life and death were put to our account.

Therefore, it is by faith alone, in Christ alone that we are Justified

5. The Glorification of God

First, even glorification is something that is now and not-yet. On the present side, Paul wrote to the Corinthians that believers even now “are being transformed into his [Christ’s] image with ever-increasing glory” (2 Cor 3:18) and Peter wrote to the churches of Asia Minor, “The Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1 Pet 4:14).

On the future side, glory is not fully possessed since Paul looks forward to a day when God “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Phil 3:21).

In other words, one can view glorification as simultaneously present and future, but probably with an asterisk on the future side.

Some have questioned the fact that Sanctification seems to be missing in this text that goes straight from justification to glorification.

However, it is implied in our being conformed to the image of Christ which includes our Sanctification.

Sanctification is Glory Begun, and Glory is Sanctification Complete.

Paul is so certain of this that He puts it in the same aorist tense as if it were in the past as the other four strands have indicated.

God is pictured as moving irresistibly from one stage to the next.

Romans (The Hope of Glory)

Romans illustrates: God had always intended to make the riches of his glory known to Jews and Gentiles (Rom 9:23).

1). Glory is what humanity was meant to seek after and to receive from God (2:7, 10), yet humanity foolishly exchanged the glory of God for an inglorious idolatry (1:23), with the result that all humans have fallen short of God’s glory (3:21).

2). Abraham was an exception as someone who gave glory to God (4:20), while the Israelites were the custodians of the divine glory in their worship (9:4).

3). It was God’s glory that raised Jesus from the dead (6:4). Christ is glorified because the Gentiles have been made holy to God (15:17). In Jesus Christ the “hope of glory” is recovered (5:2), and it enables people to even “glory in our sufferings” (5:3).

4). Christians suffer with Christ and will one day be glorified with Christ (8:17). God’s glory will be revealed in the very fabric of their being (8:18). Creation anxiously awaits the glorious freedom of the children of God (8:21). It is for this reason that Paul can burst into praise and acclaim, “To him be the glory forever! Amen” (11:36), and “to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ” (16:27).

Michael F. Bird

“I like to think of the Glory of God as the Incandescent splendor of God’s Beauty and Majesty.”

The new heavens and new earth will be the realm of our future existence that will be illuminated by the Glory of God.

Glory is the place where groanings are no more, where groanings are only a faint memory of what came before, a wrinkle in time amidst an eternity of peace, praise, and joy with God.

CONCLUSION

Romans (The Hope of Glory)

There was this African town that had been ravaged by civil war. Most families had fled the violence and had little thought of going back because there was nothing to go back to.

Virtually all of the houses were ruined or damaged, all the shops had been looted, the schools and hospital had been demolished, and what little infrastructure there was had been destroyed. While everything seemed hopeless, when a new well was dug by a foreign engineering team, the mood of the town changed virtually overnight.

People got excited, they began repairing buildings, shops recommenced their business, they reopened schools and a medical center, and some families began to return to their homes.

The creation of a new well meant that the town had clean water, a source of life, and they could have a go at getting life back to normal. Hope overcomes the inertia of despair and energizes people with a vision that the future might be better than what it is like in the present.

Our Christian hope is what enables us to cope with the groanings in our lives, to move beyond the paralysis of pain, because we know that something better is on the horizon.

Romans: Dust to Destiny (The Unbreakable Chain of God’s Purposes)

The person who finds him or herself somewhere in this chain can know that he or she has eternal life (1 John 5:13).

Remember again that Paul writes in a context of suffering. What Christian does not fear that circumstances might become so terrible that he or she might not have the strength to remain faithful? God, however, will be faithful.

Those whom he foreknew he will glorify. He is able to keep his own. ‘No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand’, Jesus said. (John 10:29) God’s unbreakable word and omnipotent power is the guarantee of that.