“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. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that we might be the firstborn amongst many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”
Romans 8:28-30

WE continue this great and glorious theme of the purpose of God revealed in these verses before us. The amazing thing is the completeness of this purpose, his purpose of salvation. God has left nothing incomplete, and nothing is left to our feeble hands to perform. His purpose stretches from before time began and stretches forward to beyond time and into eternity. This is the wonder of his purpose and our glory and blessing.

GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE.

This everlasting purpose is explained by Paul in verses 29 and 30. This purpose began before time in the eternity of God. Paul tells us this in the phrase “For those God foreknew”. This foreknowledge takes us before creation in the timelessness of eternity. This before time aspect is expressed by Paul in Ephesians 1:8 where we read “For God chose us in him (Christ) before the creation of the world”. We have this same truth expressed in 2 Timothy 1:9 “who (God) has saved us and called us to a holy life -- not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.” And again in Titus 1:2 “a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.”

The word used in Greek which is translated here in Romans 8:29 as foreknowledge is found in five other places in the New Testament. These places are Acts 2:23; Acts 4:27,28; Romans 11:2; 1 Peter 1:2; and 1 Peter 1:20. In each case, though the word is translated differently in our English translation, it always has the same meaning. The meaning is of a particular foreknowledge. It is a special knowing of God which has the idea of selection and choosing. The idea is of a knowing that is different to his general all-knowing and omniscience. The word has the idea of God setting his love upon those he foreknew and determining of his sovereign grace and will to love them.

Many seek to avoid this idea of selection and choosing by thinking of this foreknowledge as God knowing before hand those who would believe on him. However this will not do because it assumes that a person, by their will and choosing, decides to believe in Jesus. This is contrary to the revelation of the New Testament which tells us that we are all dead in trespasses and sins, with no desire to seek Christ or believe on him. Indeed the New Testament tells us that we are dead and so have no life which responds to God or knows God. Jesus tells us in John 6:44 “No-one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” and in John 6:39 Jesus tells us that he has come to save those whom the Father has given him - “And this is the will of him that sent me, that I shall lose none of all he has given me”.

This word ‘foreknowledge’ is at the heart of the Gospel and God’s purpose of salvation. If God had not exercised this foreknowledge no one would be saved at all, for Adam sold us to the Devil, and we are born into this world subjects of Satan, and hostile to God. We have nothing in ourselves which responds to God. We, who believe, believe because God has been gracious to us, and set his love upon us before creation, and holds to this purpose so that in time he graciously draws us into his love, not be coercion, but by making us willing in the day of his power. Faith in Jesus is a gift of God’s love, and should cause us to praise him with heartfelt praise.

This teaching and revelation causes our natural heart to rebel and resist, to question and reject. Satan works on this natural tendency of our sinful nature. Human reason raises objections. Human feeling is troubled. Why should some be chosen and not every one? Why am I chosen and someone else not? Doesn’t this doctrine diminish humanity? This doctrine is an insult to our pride. This doctrine is against freedom of will. This doctrine makes us into robots. This foreknowledge seems so unfair. The questions are endless, and in the end we can’t answer them because God has not seen fit to enlighten us. The only answer we find in the Bible is that nobody would be saved from everlasting perdition if God did not chose to save some. The Bible tells us that in justice God has no other course than to condemn all humanity because we are sinners and rebels. The Bible tells us that God has no obligation to save anyone of us. All we are told is that God chose us in Christ “in accordance with his pleasure and his will” (Ephesians 1:5) and again we are told in Ephesians 1:14 that his purpose of redemption was for the praise of his glory.

There is only one way to approach this teaching and that is to be humble under the mighty hand of God, and submit to his revealed will even though we are unable to understand it. When we are able to do this, this teaching concerning the foreknowledge of God is of inexplicable comfort and assurance. What tremendous blessing it is that God has taken upon himself the responsibility to save us to the uttermost, and this will not fail even though we are such weak and sinful creatures.

HE PREDESTINED.

Here is another emotive word which raises so much controversy and anger in many peoples minds and hearts. Yet it follows naturally and necessarily from the revelation of God’s foreknowledge. When God choses and sets his love upon us according to his foreknowledge, then it follows certainly that he will predestine us to be saved and kept in his love.

Foreknowledge and predestination go together and can’t be separated. In Ephesians 1:4 and 5 we are told that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, and for this reason he predestined us to be adopted as his sons. The purpose of God is a sure and complete purpose. God’s purpose includes everything necessary for salvation, as we shall proceed to understand, through to God bringing us to his eternal glory. This purpose is based on God’s determined will and purpose seen in his foreknowledge and predestination.

This teaching has always caused questions in peoples minds, and this is why Paul deals with it in stark clarity in chapter 9 of this letter to the Romans. Paul illustrates it in the history of the Patriarches. He tells us that God loved Jacob but rejected Esau. When this revelation is questioned, Paul’s reply is given in chapter 9:20 “Who are you, O man, to talk back to God.” There is only one way to receive this teaching and that is to seek to understand it as far as God gives us explanation in the Bible, and then to believe it and receive it in submission to God, in spite of all the difficulties we may perceive in it.

PURPOSE OF GOD’S PREDESTINATION.

Many argue that this doctrine of Foreknowledge and Predestination is an encouragement to sin, and for this reason it can’t be received. They argue that if God saves by his sovereign will then it does not matter how we live. If we are chosen we will be saved anyway, and if we are not then it does not matter, we are damned already. They argue that this doctrine is against all the teaching concerning holiness in the Bible.

Paul addressed this problem in chapter 6 of this letter to the Romans when he asks “Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase.” The next phrase in verse 29 of chapter 8 hits this argument on the head and demolishes it.

What is God’s purpose in his foreknowledge and predestination? His purpose, which he will most surely perform, is that we may be conformed to the likeness of his Son. The likeness of his Son is the likeness of his character and life. We can’t be like Jesus in his essential person, because we can’t share in his divinity. The purpose is, however, that we should be like him in his character. God’s purpose is that in our life and living we should reflect the love and righteousness and holiness of Jesus.

This means that this is what God is purposing to work in us according to his sovereign will. As God has purposed this, he will most surely perform it. In Ephesians 4:24 this purpose is described as God creating us to be like Him in true righteousness and holiness. This is what he does when we are raised to new life in Christ, which is rebirth of our spiritual nature. There can be no proof of our being predestined to life unless it is reflected in our lives by showing Christ-likeness in the way we think, and feel, and live, and behave. A growth in holiness is the only true evidence of salvation, and if our life is not growing in holiness and godliness, then we can’t claim to be saved.

In Ezekial 36 the purpose of God in Christ is described fully. From v35 in Ezekial 36 we read the purpose of God - “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you: I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” This is the purpose of God which Paul is describing in these verses in Romans 8 before us. God never fails in his purpose. So far from this doctrine encouraging sinful living, it is totally against it, and makes it impossible.

There is only one way a truly saved person will live according to this purpose of God, and that is to live for God, to seek God, and be careful and determined to live according to the will and law of God. The truly saved person is one who is tender in conscience, and even the least sin is felt as a great evil, and a shame, and something that is dreadful and a sin against love, the love of God shown in Christ. The truly saved person seeks to mortify the evil tendencies of the flesh, and repents quickly of known sin, and grieves over the sinfulness of their heart. Paul expresses this attitude in Romans 7:14ff.

However in out struggle against sin we have this marvellous assurance that the purpose of God is that we shall be conformed to the image of his Son, and that purpose can never fail.

We shall also have the encouragement of being able to see, in the midst of our failure to be what we want to be for Christ, something of the progress of God working in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. This is seen in an ever deeper consciousness of the sinfulness of sin, and in the desire after holiness that fills our heart. It will be seen in that we love the things of Christ, and Christ is our joy and glory. It will be seen in the fact that more and more our lives will be dominated by Christ and love for him, and a desire to please him.

We may often mourn greatly that our progress in grace and holiness seems so slow, but others will be able to see that it is real. We also can cry with Paul in Romans 7:24,25 that though we mourn over the sinfulness of our flesh, we can rejoice in the certainty that when at last Christ calls us into his everlasting glory we shall have the victory. The victory is in the fact that this sinful body will be left here in this world, and we shall receive a new resurrection body which is completely like Christ’s resurrection body. Then we will be able to express our new holy nature entirely without any hindrance.