Romans 8:28–30

More than conquerors

We have noted at several places that a single Greek word can have a number of meanings. Flexible words like law (nomos) and spirit (pneuma) are examples. The choice of meaning will affect one’s understanding of the passage. There also are other causes of variation, however. Variation in the text can occur when a slight change in the form of a word, caused by hand copying, changes its construction in the sentence. For example, the difference of one letter can change the subject of a verb into its object. Under God’s providential hand, such variations in the text have not caused false doctrine, but they do give a slightly different slant to the sentence in which they occur.

We have an example of such a variation in verse 28. The NIV translators have rendered the passage this way:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

As a footnote they print the rendering we are perhaps more familiar with: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.” The footnote rendering has manuscript support every bit as strong as the other reading and could just as well have been retained in the main text. Either reading reflects basically the same thought.

The connecting link to the previous verse is that no anxiety while we are waiting for judgment day and no gaps in our prayer life—or any other problem, for that matter—can seriously threaten our spiritual status, because we are objects of God’s love, chosen from eternity. Whether the text reads “in all things God works for the good” or “all things work together for good,” the favorable outcome is sealed and certain.

But of whom is Paul speaking? For whom is this true? When Paul says things will work out for the good of those who love God, that tends to make us uneasy. We immediately ask ourselves whether we love God enough to fit into such a category. But the apostle at once sets our hearts at ease when he points out that in all of this, it is not what we do but what God has done for us that makes all the difference. All things work for the good of those “who have been called according to his [God’s] purpose.”

Believers in Christ can and should rest assured that everything involving their salvation has been taken care of by a gracious God. From eternity he has been active in their salvation. Paul lines up a chain of events that makes the child of God’s promised inheritance absolutely sure and certain.

29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

The sequence of events referred to here covers the time from eternity past to the present and on into the eternal future. Paul opens the series with the statement, “Those God foreknew, he also predestined.” In the commentary on Romans 7:15, we noted that the Greek verb know is not restricted merely to having information. It implies much more. It implies an intimate knowledge gained by personal experience, reflecting approval and acceptance of the thing or person known. Note how that force comes through, albeit in the negative, when Jesus states that he will say to false teachers, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:23). Jesus is not saying that he was unaware of these false teachers’ activities. He knew exactly what they were teaching. The point is that he will never acknowledge them as being his own. Hence rejection is the logical consequence of Jesus’ not “knowing” or approving of them.

Exactly the opposite is true of those whom God knows with approval and acceptance. They are his own, his chosen ones. But Paul is saying something more significant than merely that God knows his own. Rather, God “foreknew” us from eternity, that is, by his grace God chose us in advance, from eternity, before we ever had a chance to lift a finger or do anything to win his favor and approval. That’s grace! Paul spells out this doctrine of grace more fully when he writes to the Ephesians, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:3-5; see also 2:8-10).

What was God’s goal or objective in choosing the elect? Paul says God “predestined [them] to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” God’s gracious goal and intention was to bring the elect into conformity with Christ. He wanted believers to share in the boundless blessings that now are the rightful possession of Christ. In bringing the elect into his family, in making them sons of God, the Father honored Christ, the Son of God, by giving him many siblings.

“And those he [God] predestined, he also called.” From eternity God predestined the elect to share in the blessing of his Son. In order to bring that about, he called them in their time on earth. Through the means of grace, through Word and sacraments, he invites them to accept the righteousness of Christ and thus become sons of God and heirs of heaven.

“Those he [God] called, he also justified.” God’s call comes through the means of grace. The Holy Spirit, working through these means, works the faith through which the believer accepts the righteousness Christ earned for all the world. Recall that we have previously distinguished between general justification and personal justification (also called objective justification and subjective justification). Here in this chain of events, Paul is talking about personal acceptance of the righteousness Christ earned, whereby God declares the individual believer to be just and holy, acceptable as a son and an heir.

“Those he [God] justified, he also glorified.” Believers, fully justified and secure under the protecting care of a gracious God, are already sharing in God’s glory. The full realization of that, however, will not come on this side of judgment day. The believer’s full glorification will come only in heaven. However, what God has promised is as good as done. Hence Paul can use a past tense of the verb (“glorified”) here in adding the last link of the chain of unbreakable certainties that mark the whole course of a Christian’s existence.

God has done absolutely everything necessary for our salvation. In his mercy he foreknew us, predestined us, called us, justified us, and glorified us. How are we now to respond to such love and grace from our Savior-God? Paul will provides the answer in the next few verses.