God's Golden Chain (Romans 8:29-30)
Romans 8 • Sermon • Submitted
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Romans 8:29-30 is our passage this morning.
"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. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."
8 The grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
This is the word of God
For several centuries Romans 8:29-30 has been called the Golden Chain of Salvation.
Each word (foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified) acts as a link in God's perfect chain, his perfect and unbreakable work of salvation.
In these two verses we see God's saving work in eternity past, God's saving work in the believer's present and God's saving work in eternity future.
These two verses are so incredible that you almost have to open your bible and hold it up over your head and then let it pour over you so that you can drink deeply. To not allow this part of God’s word to fill your heart and your soul is to basically give the enemy an opportunity to sow seed of doubt into your most inner being.
It’s been said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. There is is no weak link in these verses. Each one is forged in the fire of the Holy Spirit and made firm with the sovereignty of the Father and made precious and priceless to the believer through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Each word links with the next word, one cannot exist without the other and most important, each word is a Bible word. These words are in the Bible, they are given by the Holy Spirit and as believers we should embrace these words and embrace each word as God's truth.
Most amazing is that in the sovereignty of God each verb is in the past tense. In the mind of God those God foreknew and predestined in eternity past were in God’s mind called and justified and even glorified in eternity past.
We think that our spiritual birth, our coming to faith, our being saved took place a year ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 50 60 70 years ago. From a human perspective this is true. But in the mind of God your salvation was achieved in eternity past, before creation, before time.
That is why we read of Jesus dying on the cross and giving his life for us 2000 years ago but the apostle John reminds us that
7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
This is the greatness of God’s promise.
And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.
Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
If the Lord has appointed you to eternal life, if he has opened your heart, if you have believed in the Lord Jesus, YOU WILL be saved.
And Romans 8:29-30 is Paul’s great message of hope to all believers.
In Romans 8:1 he says
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:29-30 is foundation upon which his promise that there is no condemnation is built.
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 word For is used for explanation: it is giving the reason for why verse 28 is true. Romans 8:28
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
You can only truly love God because the Holy Spirit has opened your mind and your heart and has given you the faith to believe. And in verse 28 we see that those who love God are also described as those who are called according to His purpose. We often think that this purpose is solely the glorification of God. All things work together for good because God will be glorified through them. But then Paul gives us verses 29 and 30 and we see that all things work together for our eternal good as well.
And so the FOR of verse 29 presents to us the explanation for why we can say that all things work together for good for those who love God.
The next word is He. We have mentioned before that there is one true and living God who exists eternally as three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Whenever the word God is mentioned by itself we must understand this to be a reference to the trinity and not one member of the Godhead. In verse 28 we see God referring to the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Those who love God.
But in verse 29 we see that the Son is mentioned and more specifically his son. This means that the He must refer to God the Father.
It is God the Father who has intimately known us since the beginning. It is God the Father who has predestined us, and called us, and justified us and glorified us. It is God the Father who sent his Son Jesus to be God in the flesh and the savior of all who come to him in Faith. It is God the Father who sent his Holy Spirit. It is God the Father who is the architect, the builder, the planner, the giver of this golden chain of salvation. This is the work of God and I pray that in this passage you will see less of yourself and be humbly blown away by what God the father has chosen to do in your life. And all of this is because of His grace.
And then we have the word “foreknew”. I can remember being a young Christian and asking what this meant and hearing that God does not “know” who will come to Christ but since he is able to look into the future he can see those who will choose him.
This is not what this word means. It is the greek word ginosko which means to know in an intimate way. And it has the greek word pros which means before. It means to intimately know before. It means to choose or select in advance, to choose beforehand, to select in advance.
But we need to go deeper.
Now, let me begin by telling you what it does not mean. Foreknowledge does not mean that God looks down the tunnel of time to see who would chose his son. And when God sees who chooses his son, He then, on the basis of this foresight, predestines and sets all this into motion, and the pivotal hinge point is what God sees that you do with his son. And so God sees you choosing Him and then He chooses you. This is absolutely false. And here’s why:
God knows everything. He has never learned anything. He is never surprised, he is never unaware. There is nothing outside of God, God is not learning, getting smarter, getting wiser. He is wisdom. God was not sitting in a chair back in eternity past and saying to himself, I just don’t know what’s going to happen. That is a pagan view of God, a god who is not omnipotent, all powerful; omnipresent, all present, omniscient, all knowing.
If God was looking into the future to see who would choose Jesus as their Savior we can easily answer what the answer would be reading the first seven chapters of Romans. The answer is given in
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
This is the doctrine of total depravity. This is what is called spiritual blindness, this is what is called the hardness of human heart. This is why Paul in Romans 8 has already said that because we are spiritually dead we are hostile to God and we choose to be God’s enemies because we are not only not seeking God, we have turned aside, and when it says that no one does good, it means that our minds, our hearts, our souls are unable to do that which can please God. We can do what we might consider good things but Romans 8 says that we are not just unable to do that which please God, we are incapable.
God knows everything. He especially knows that no one is able to choose him apart from the divine work of the Holy Spirit. And that is why Paul gives us
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
3. It says that God foreknew. It does not say say that God foresaw.
The meaning of foreknew is to choose or select in advance, to choose beforehand, to select in advance.
And this is where we will pick up next week. What does it mean that God knows you?
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.
Perhaps one of the most effective ways to know how spiritually mature a person is, is to ask them one simple question: how much of your salvation are you responsible for?
The more you study your Bible the more you see God’s sovereign grace and control. And for most of us when we entered the Christian life we thought it was God and us. That’s a joint venture. That God did his part and then I did my part and we met in the middle, and there’s like 50 percent God and 50 percent me.
And the more you study your Bible, and the more you have your eyes open, and the more you learn how to interpret scripture, the more you see it’s not 50/50. You see it’s 60/40, 70/30, it’s 80/20. And you keep reading and you keep growing until you come to the point you realize it’s 100 percent God.
It was God who chose to lay his hands on me and to save me. God chose me long before I ever chose him, and God loved me long before I ever loved him, and God pursued me long before I ever pursued him. God knew me long before I ever knew him.
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Steven Lawson
And what you will note is there’s no one added along the way, and there is no one subtracted along the way. The group that God began with in eternity past is the group that will stand before the throne of God in heaven, in eternity future. There are no dropouts from this university. The group he began with is the group that he will consummate with.
And you will note that those whom he foreknew he predestined. This is all God. This is none of man. This has nothing to do with man. We have no contribution to make to this. This is entirely a monergistic work of grace, and the word monergistic there’s only one active agent. Synergistic means there’s two or more active agents.
Now there’s only one. You can read it for yourself in your own Bible. Those whom he foreknew he predestined. Those whom he predestined he called. And those whom he called he justified. And those whom he justified he glorified. It’s all God. You’re caught up in something that is so far bigger than who you are, or will ever be. It is rooted and grounded in God himself.
As Lawson would put it:
The more you study your Bible the more you see of God. And for most of us when we entered the Christian life we thought it was God and us. That’s a joint venture. That God did his part and then I did my part and we met in the middle, and there’s like 50 percent God and 50 percent me.
And the more you study your Bible, and the more you have your eyes open, and the more you learn how to interpret scripture, the more you see it’s not 50/50. You see it’s 60/40, 70/30, it’s 80/20. And you keep reading and you keep growing until you come to the point you realize it’s 100 percent God.
It was God who chose to lay his hands on me and to save me. God chose me long before I ever chose him, and God loved me long before I ever loved him, and God pursued me long before I ever pursued him. God knew me long before I ever knew him.