8-Day Commentary Challenge - Romans 8Sample

THE PLAN OF GOD, 8:28–30

Finally, verses 28–30 gives us the third reason for patiently enduring suffering. It is the firm conviction that under the hand of the Sovereign Lord of all creation, “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (v. 28 nasb). God has a plan. Everything in our lives contributes to the realization of that purpose. It is an all-comprehensive plan in that “all” things are included; not one detail of our lives is excluded. It is a cooperative plan in that all things are “working together” in concert; the individual ingredients, as in a kitchen recipe, have no virtue or ultimate significance in themselves apart from the providential combination into the divine pattern. The plan is beneficent in that the goal is “the good.” It is also selective in that it applies only to those “who love God” who are in fact those “called” by God into His glorious purpose through the redemption effected through Jesus Christ. Our good, C. S. Lewis pointed out, is to love God and fulfill His will for our lives.

In verses 29–30 Paul focuses on the main events leading to God’s eternal “purpose” for the Christian: ultimate glorification with Christ. He begins before time in the Father’s foreknowledge and concludes beyond time in glorification; between these two, within time, come calling and justification. Please note two prominent features of this plan. First, God Himself is the designer and executioner of each link in the chain. He foreknows and He predestinates; He calls and He justifies and He glorifies. We, it seems, have no active part in the design or execution of the purpose. Our only part is our response of continual love to God (v. 28).

Secondly, all who begin and continue in this plan by continuing to love God also finish. Those “whom” He foreknew are those “whom” (nasb) He called; “whom” He called He also justified, and “whom” He justified He also glorified. God starts with one hundred sheep and arrives in glory with one hundred, not ninety-nine. When contemplating the suffering and setbacks of this present life, nothing can be more assuring than to know that the present is only a small segment between justification and glorification in a total plan that has had three stages already fulfilled. It fills us with a sense of humility and worth and dignity beyond all comprehension and a sense of God’s ability to meet every challenge that would thwart His purpose in our lives.

“Those whom He foreknew”  (Gk. proginōskō) presents a problem. Some following Augustine and Calvin believe that this word, when used of God, refers to more than mere knowledge beforehand (1 Pet. 1:2, 20). In this view, the word emphasizes the fact that salvation was initiated by God in His eternal loving choice whereby He chose us in Christ to be the objects of His loving purpose (see Amos 3:2; Eph. 1:4–6). Those who hold this view point out that as difficult as it may seem, foreknowledge always depends on God’s election or choice of us and never on our election of God (2 Thess. 2:13–14). Others believe as did Theodoret of Cyr (d. 455) that these realities of predestination, calling, justification, and glorification ought not to be seen as caused by God’s foreknowledge, but as known by Him because He is God (G. Bray, ed. Romans, 237). The crux issue is whether our salvation is caused by God’s election of us or by our response to Him which He knew beforehand (see note 27). Those persons whom God chose to set His love upon are the very ones He also determined to “be conformed to the image of his Son” (v. 29). In this view, predestination (Gk. proorizō) is almost the equivalent of foreknowledge (v. 30; only “predestined” is repeated in the chain) but emphasizes the goal or end in view, while foreknowledge focuses on the persons involved (Acts 4:28; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:5, 11). The goal of God’s electing purpose is that Christ might be the eldest (firstborn) of many brothers and sisters in glory who bear His very image or likeness (1 Cor. 15:49; Phil. 3:21; Col. 1:18; Heb. 2:10; 1 John 3:2). Glorification involves receiving the full humanity of Jesus in a redeemed body adapted to full expression of the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:44).

Those who were predestined before time to this glory were called and justified by God in time (v. 30). Calling refers to God’s gracious direct appeal to our hearts to respond in faith to His free offer of pardon and new life in the gospel of Christ (2 Thess. 2:14). It too is a word associated with God’s election (Isa.  41:9; 1 Cor. 1:26–27); God calls (elects) us out of sin and death by the gospel of Christ. Calling is God’s application in time of His election before time (Eph. 1:4–5). Our act of faith in the gospel of Christ secured our actual justification (acquittal and life), which has been Paul’s burden throughout the letter. The final link that completes God’s plan is our glorification with Christ (v. 30).

It should be noted well that all the relative pronouns (“whom”) in these verses go back to the first substantive phrase in verse 28, “of those who love him.” Paul puts this first in the Greek because he does not want anyone to miss it. But we must ask, are these called because they love God, or do they love God because they are called? Theologians have debated this issue for centuries. The point that is important here in Romans is that Paul does not get caught up in this kind of theological speculation. All he says is that those who are foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified are those whose earthly life since their conversion has been one great process of loving God.

Present distresses or reversals can never then be viewed as destructive forces against the Christian. Each fits into the present link in God’s unfolding purpose. In some manner they are preparing us for the future revelation of His glory in the redeemed and in the whole creation. Reversals and distresses may pull us down. Yet on the other hand the contemplation of the reality of the future salvation (vv. 18–25), together with both the help of the Holy Spirit in our weakness (vv. 26–27) and the firm knowledge that all our experiences are working for our good in God’s eternal plan (vv. 28–30) all combine to cause our spirits to rise in triumphant praise to God. It is He who has put us into an eternal relationship to Himself and freed us from all accusation (vv. 31–34) and all possibility of separation from His love in Christ Jesus (vv. 35–39).