THE BOOK OF ROMANS CHAPTER 8:29-39
ALL ARE CALLED, BUT FEW CHOOSE
Romans 8:29-39 are verses having to do with the love of God expressed in the working of good through all things towards those who are loving Him and called according to His purpose. That purpose being to have many sons. These verses also have to do with our love for God expressed through obedience to Him. Our love of God is dynamic and quantifiable by God Who searches our hearts. That love expressed towards God is determined by our following the spirit/Spirit in ‘child training’ obedience which leads us unto sanctification (spiritual and moral maturity, as seen in the life of Abraham Romans 4). The circumstances of life become training opportunities for those who love God. (He’ll mature us if we don’t resist.) For loving obedience leads to true sanctification, which is to say, our conforming to the image of Christ. (Verse 29) Romans 8:29-39 are clauses that are describing the experience of those who are fulfilling Verse 28 (“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”). They are intended assurances for those who are actively loving God in the pursuing of Him according to His expressed purpose. These 11 verses are not to be considered general statements made unto all Christians alike. But in reality, they are generally miss-appropriated to be for the merely justified Christian who is not actively loving God in obedient faith.
Two ideas feed the wrong thinking behind these verses.
- Ignorance of God’s foreordained 2-part Atonement in Christ; eternal life and eternal glory
- Lukewarm presumption
The sincere Christian must ask himself these questions: Does the Holy Spirit teach anywhere in Scripture that certain loss will be the experience of a believer in Christ who continues in wicked behavior? Does the Holy Spirit confirm anywhere in Scripture that the believer in Christ will be rewarded according to his faithful works? The light of the full Gospel will shine in when the blinds are lifted from the window. All Christians shall be judged by Christ. (Romans 14:10-12, 2nd Corinthians 5:9-10, Hebrews 10:30). That Judgment principle will be according to good or evil works: (Matthew 16:24-27, Revelation 2:23; 22:12)
VERSES 29 & 30 “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate (foreordained) to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”
KEY WORDS…The word PREDESTINATION is used here wrongly, thus it is understood to mean that God has predetermined all that will happen. It is generally thought to mean ‘eternal life for some and not for others’. The better word would be FOREORDAINED which means to decree or appoint something beforehand. FOREKNEW/FOREKNOWLEDGE is an awareness of something before it happens or exists. To foreknow something does not mean it is necessarily foreordained or appointed to happen.
We understand from Paul’s Letters that God has set forth the Nation of Israel as typical/figures/examples of how He intends to deal with the Nation of the New Man/Christian. (1st Corinthians 10:6&11) The 10th Chapter of 1st Corinthians deals with Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and their following experiences on their way to inherit the Promised Land. Paul presents these happenings as types of a Christian’s spiritual experience. In that after a Christian’s deliverance, with promises of a future Kingdom inheritance set before us, there is the like possibility of a mirrored failure in obtaining God’s purposes of our redemption, as it was with Israel. (Paul warns of this presumptuousness in 1st Corinthians 10:12 “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”)
Another New Testament example of this same typology is Hebrews 3:18-4:6 where again the Holy Spirit warns the Christian of the dangers of presumption and unbelief which will disqualify the Believer in Christ, who like Israel, after having been delivered from the kingdom of bondage, and then receiving the promise of inheritance, then failed to obtain the promise. In type, dying on the right side of the Red Sea but on the wrong side of the Jordan River. (Having experienced the victory at the Red Sea, but remaining in the wilderness, not getting past the Jordan River to their intended inheritance. The anti-type is being justified but not receiving the inheritance of the one who is sanctified.)
Exodus 15:13-18 presents the joyous celebration in song of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt with the full assurance of their future inheritance of the Land of Canaan. Here in the Song is found no contemplation of failure of anyone, no threats or warnings, only words of assurance of the very real and bountiful place God had purposed to plant them in. Whereas the song, inspired of God, set forth the certainty of the promise without contingencies to be fulfilled, the reality was that many of those that sang and rejoiced in those prophetic words were rejected by God and fell short of the Promised Land. And likewise in what God had purposed and swore to do for Abraham’s seed, He then later swore again that certain of these, because of their unbelief, would not inherit the Land, even though they were Abraham’s seed and rightful heirs. (Deuteronomy 1:34-35 with Numbers 14:19-23,34)
VERSES 29-39 of the Book of Romans runs parallel with the Old Testament texture found in that redemption of the Nation of Israel. Many of those who promote the idea of God predetermining who will be eternally saved and who will receive the Kingdom inheritance point towards the ‘past’ tense employed in verses 29 & 30. “Whom he foreknew He also foreordained…them he also called… them he also justified… them he also glorified.” The past tense is stressed to promote the idea that God predetermined who would be called, justified and glorified. But the example of Exodus 15 with the reality of what followed, offsets the certainty of the use of past tense words as a means to teach God has predestined who will be saved and who will be lost. God’s purpose and will and promise was to bring them all into the inheritance as was expressed in the joyous song, His foreknowledge not withstanding.
These first 8 Chapters of Romans have done nothing to promote predestination. On the contrary, verse 17 of this Chapter clearly shows forth the condition of glorification of those redeemed… “….if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” The possibility of failure to receive what God desires for all men is the current that runs through all Scripture. God’s ‘will’ is described in the Greek by two words; ‘thelema and boulema’. One speaks to His sovereign will, and the other to His desired will. God’s sovereign will cannot be resisted, but His desired will is not always accomplished. It was/is not God’s desired or purposed will that any man should perish, but that all would come to His saving grace. The following verses show that God’s intent was for all men to be reconciled unto Him. (John 3:16… “For God so loved the world…”, 2nd Corinthians 5:19… “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself…” 1st John 2:2… “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world…” 4:14… “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” and 5:19… “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” God’s desired will can also be seen in that ALL were written in Book of Life, but man, by his free will, can cause his name to be blotted out. See Deuteronomy 29:20, Psalm 109:13, and Revelation 3:5)
The Word of God says He Himself is not tempted to do evil nor did He tempt Adam to sin, nor anyone since. (James 1) What then is assured in Scripture is that God did not design or intend that evil should come into His creation. If He had, He would be culpable. The origin of evil is laid at the feet of His intelligent creation “…because thou hast set thine heart (prideful and wicked) as (equal with) the heart of God….” (Ezekiel 28:6,15-19) Lucifer’s sin was not inevitable or the Creator would have ultimately been responsible. The un-fallen Angels stand in contrast to any inevitability, who for untold ages have chosen to remain in the sustaining power of God. He also ensures that there is no place for pride or any sin in the New heavens and New Earth in that the great deterrent of the eternal Lake of Fire is a part of the New heavens and new Earth… Isaiah 66:22-24.) “They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction. They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” [Jeremiah 32:33-35] (Note that God doesn’t ponder or delve into the depths of wickedness. It’s not part of His nature.) Sin unto Eternal death was not God’s plan, yet it is now unavoidable in that it has been declared by the sovereign will of God that free contrary will choice be upheld in spite of His desired will and persistent persuading/brooding in grace (more on this in a moment) offered to all living mankind.
Grace must be met by man’s convicted will in faith in Christ in order to satisfy God’s desired will and to accomplish His purposes and obtain His promises. God’s desired will, free from any contingencies, was fully expressed in the song of victory at the Red Sea crossing, in that all those redeemed were pictured as those who would inherit the Promised Land. As it is in like manner, the expression of Romans 8:29-30 is that all who are justified were intended to be glorified. God’s desired will was that all Israel would be redeemed, all would be sanctified and all would receive inheritance in the Promised Land. But because of man’s frailty or weakness of the flesh in the knowledge of good and evil, the possibility of failure arose. God had not predetermined nor purposed that many would fall short of the earthly Promise after justification by the blood of the lamb. The same holds true of those justified by the Blood of Christ, in that it is not predetermined or purposed of God that any would fall short of the inheritance of heavenly glorification with Christ. This is not to say He did not foreknow that some would be disqualified from the promise.
VERSE 29 “For whom he did foreknow (foreknew), he also (not thereby) did foreordained predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son (through the exercising of their wills in the following of the spirit/Spirit and not the flesh), that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Because many Christians are without the understanding of God’s 2-part Atonement in Christ, that of the gift of eternal life and the reward of eternal glory , the vast majority of Christians are only vaguely aware of eternal life and eternal death and know nothing of the reward or loss of inheritance. They confuse the Scriptures that deal differently with the other part of the Atonement that is being addressed. This misappropriation of scripture opens the door for many misunderstandings.
The ideal of God’s Salvation Pan for man was that all fallen mankind would accept Christ’s Atonement, follow obediently the new nature bestowed within by the Holy Spirit in overcoming the flesh, the World and satan. All then, would be worthy to be glorified and to be Co-Rulers with Christ in the appointed replacement government of God’s future Kingdom in the New Heavens and New Earth. (Replacing the government of fallen Angels which is currently ruled by satan.) But because the desired will of man is permitted over the desired Will of God, any man may abuse the greatest of privilege; that of free choice, to his own demise. It is in the willingness in increasing faith energized by love, in His loving promises and goodness, to be realized in the hereafter, even in the sure face of present temporal sufferings, that sets apart those from the merely eternally saved. It is this loving relationship chosen by some of the saved that is in view up to verse 39. Only that which stems from love is found worthy, and love must be of free will, or it is not love at all.
It is God’s intent to give His Son a bride, that Christ might have many brethren and God Himself many sons. Adam was formed out of the dirt, and with God’s breath, he became a living soul. And it was determined that it was not good that he should be alone in his dominion, but that he should have a help-meet. And all creation was brought before Adam to find a fit helper, but of them none was to be found, and so God put him into a state of ‘death’ and formed a help-meet out from Adam’s body. It is later said, after the fall of man, that Adam “…begat a son in his own likeness after his (own) image…” [Genesis 5:3] It is in that image that we are born as men into this world. God has formed another Adam more in the form of His likeness, Who went down into the earth in death and came up a life-giving spiritual man in the true express image of God. (1st Corinthians 15:45, Hebrews 1:3) Who will raise up out from among the dead His lovingly obedient servants into His like glorious image, to be Christ’s help-meet to rule over the heavens and earth. None who are not conformed to His image will be found fit to be His Bride. (Romans 8:29 with Matthew 5:3-16) Angels are not suited as they are not said to be made in the image of God. Jews (those without Christ) are not suited either, for they are relegated to an earthly image as they became Christ’s enemies (though there is to be an elect Spirit-filled remnant to rule upon the earth, they do not ascend or descend with Christ in His likeness), and Gentiles are not fit as they are at enmity with God. From None of these nor any other creature will a help-meet be found. Like the bride of the first Adam, this Bride shall be taken out of Christ’s ‘Body’ and she shall be formed in the beauty of a “new creation” These are to be bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. Paul expounds in the type… “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be — one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and — the church.” [Ephesians 5:29-32]
The first Adam’s companion was but one Woman… Christ’s are many brethren.
It is all that are born again in Christ who afterwards are being called unto bride-ship. It is those who are responding in love to God in the heavenly calling of first-born sons, out of the full body of the redeemed of Christ. These are those who are typically being formed from the rib, which answers to the Bride of Christ (typical also of Joshua and Caleb taken out of the full body of Israelites). Again, it is not God arbitrarily choosing, but those who are choosing to yield to the love of God shed abroad in their hearts at redemption, which alone are in view in Romans 8, verses 28-39.
It is to the First Resurrection that these 11 verses allude to. It is a Word of assurance for those who suffer. Nothing shall separate those who love God from the love of God in Christ. It is then in the First Resurrection of those lovingly faithful that will manifest this promise in the presentation of the glorified Bride to the Son of God/Son of man. It is just before the dawning of the age of the Millennial Kingdom of the King of kings when appropriately His royal Bride now is brought forth having been formed in the womb of the center of the Earth, along with the lovingly faithful living and will be united with Him to co-rule from the heavens above the earth. “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh.” [Genesis 2:24] The ‘flesh’ of Christ is of the spiritual kind. It’s the dawning of a new species, and that of an army arrayed for battle. (Revelation 19:7,8,14 Jude 1:14) Incarnate and having the nature of a man in this World, He willingly descended in death, but as the First Begotten from among the dead, He is in resurrected glory of the Heavenly World. The Bride’s loving and faith-filled righteousness in the face of test and trial is the basis on which she is called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. (Revelation 19:7-9) Her image is to be formed according to His other World’s glory to which none of this earthy World’s order, present or future, can ever obtain.
See John 12:24-26… “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.” These verses answer to this change and elevation of natures. It is the glorious First-Born from the dead, and His loving fruit only. Like the stars of the sky, they shall shine forth forever. They shall not multiply for they are a fixed number. They shall not diminish for they are eternal. (Luke 20:35-36)
VERSE 30 “Moreover whom he did predestinate foreordained (in His wisdom held in mystery from the ruling evil forces; the gospel of glory to 1st Corinthians 2:7-8), them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” The sons of God and brethren of Christ will be caught up in an internal likeness and of an external likeness. (1st Thessalonians 2:12; 2nd Thessalonians 2:13-14) The glorious outshining brilliance is a sign of rank in the order of God’s creation. (1st Corinthians 15:41-42) Their immediate calling is into the heavens above this earth to co-rule with Christ in His Kingdom. (Revelation 2:26-27, 3:21, 12:5, with Revelation 20:4) Their eternal abode will be within the heavens’ tabernacle of the New Jerusalem where the river and tree of life abide. (Revelation 22:1-4)
God had foreordained in His foreknowledge He would first draw nigh unto us, (fallen and condemned mankind) by the means of contrition and vicarious blood, and that being in due time in the fullness of Christ’s Atonement. God so loved the World (His creation), that He pursued us with His Word and Spirit, as reflected in the life of Abraham. The question becomes: Did God respond to Abram’s faith …or did Abram respond to God’s irresistible Sovereign will that chose him? God by foreordination extended His saving grace (undeserved unmerited favor with power) in answer to blood sacrifice joined with heart- felt repentance of a man, that he might have a degree of imputed eternal right-standing before Him. This foreordained means unto eternal life is for whomsoever that would avail themselves of His offer and is based entirely on God’s love and mercy for all mankind.
The means by which God determined this message to be communicated unto man comes by the like ‘brooding’ of the Holy Spirit over all His original fallen creation. (Genesis 1:2) This current brooding (for grace to be received in the power of the Holy Spirit) is with the intent of persuading fallen men of God’s merciful gift of forgiveness and eternal life being extended to them in the substitutionary Blood Sacrifice of His Own Son (note that only the willing respond as there is no coercing). This unseen ‘brooding’ is affected and aided by means of nature itself, conscience, man’s word of mouth from the Garden of Eden forward, the written word, visions, dreams, supernatural events, prophetic words, appointed ministers, prophets, teachers, judgments, and Angels. This ever brooding, with grace intent, is designed by God to open the ‘will door’ to the heart, where faith then fills the void of sorrowful conviction and regeneration is the subsequent result. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (It was God pursuing idol worshiping Abram by bringing His Word to bear upon His heart (Genesis 12:1-4) and it was Abram who responded to God’s advances, receiving the gift of justification. If not for the foreordained grace and merciful remedial provision to be extended to fallen mankind, found in Genesis 3:15, Abram would have died in Adam’s sins justly condemned.) For (now that we are eternally saved by His grace) we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus (by imputation and the divine nature imparted to us being connected to Him by faith) unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we (by faith unto faith energized by love Galatians 5:6) should walk in them.”
Abram had become a child of God, delivered out of satan’s kingdom the moment he believed God, seen typically in the leaving of Ur and crossing over the Euphrates River. Now faith to faith (maturing in faith) was/is the preordained process as the means of drawing upon the grace/power of the Holy Spirit unto sanctification. (Romans 1:17) Faith is not predestined; it is inspired action involving the will of man. It is the further work of God from a merely persuaded man in the gift to a fully tested and persuaded man in the reward for good works, which ultimately would be unto worthiness of adoption in son-ship at the First Resurrection. It is that for which Paul strove constantly for. (Philippians 3:11-15) Through the multiple tests of Abraham’s faith, he became fully persuaded. (Romans 4:21) And it was only after Abram’s deep sounding in testing that God did “know” he was fully persuaded and was then assured he was worthy to now receive the conditional promises that had previously been set before Him. (Genesis 22:12 and 2nd Timothy 4:8)
What we discover in the Word is that God first loved us; and that the love we have for God is a gift within our new nature. (Romans 5:5) This shedding abroad in our heart accompanies the justifying persuasion unto faith in God’s offering of His Son for our sin as sons of Adam. (Romans 6:12) This being persuaded by God in faith in His Christ is of little to no merit on our part as it is the grace gift of connection that joins us to Christ in redemption atonement. It is the experience of God’s gracious provision provided for condemned man under the just sentence of the Creator offended. It was not God’s design or will that man be condemned, nor was it inevitable, or he would have been unjustly condemned. Now foreknowledge and foreordination work together (a prison is built without predetermining the individuals who will be incarcerated there) in that God has wisely dealt with sin, first as it relates to Lucifer and fallen angels, and secondly as it relates to man. This is seen in Scripture as His sovereign will’s restoration plan. (Acts 3:19-21, Ephesians 3:9-11) God had determined/foreordained in His sovereign power through Christ the New Heavens and a New Earth free from sin with a new ruling order. On this line of renewal/restoration/new creation He has proceeded. It is not in His sovereign power that He has predestined who will be saved and who will not be saved, but in His Wisdom He has foreordained and made provision that He should have many sons (He has built the mansions but He has not predetermined the individuals who will live in them) expressing their love for Him eternally in spirit and in truth (a picture and expression of free will) based solely upon Christ’s Atonement. There is no basis for pride or boasting in the new governmental order, only gratefulness, appreciation and love. (Revelation 19:1-9) It is in the Wisdom of God that after the gift of justifying faith and love, there remains room for the saved in Christ to choose his way… “Would you also go away?” [John 6:67] So it is, that regenerate man is able to stand or fall in personal accountability for loving service unto worthiness of the First Resurrection. (Luke 20:35)
The Book of Revelation tells that the promise of reward is fulfilled for the overcomers and theirs is the first resurrection while the rest of the dead remain within the confines of the center of the earth throughout the Millennial Kingdom of Christ, without glory and honor and joy. Called, but not chosen. Justified but not sanctified, and therefore not glorified. Matthew Chapters 24 and 25 do not describe Christ’s Return and judgments on His servants as one of predestinations nor of ‘grace and mercy’, it is Christ dealing with His Body, His servants according to their service rendered; faithfully or unfaithfully. The Age of Mercy and Grace with gifts will have then evolved into the Age of recompense/reward.
The love of Christ is stressed in Romans 8:35, for in it is the assurance of the promise of sonship to those who are loving God, obeying His commandments, those who have joined Him in the pursuit of the heavenly calling, being circumcised in heart in the merit of Christ. Moving from faith to faith, drawing upon the provision of grace in the power of the Holy Spirit. Wherein His intercession we are constantly supported (verse 34) in this earth unto works worthy of the answering the calling’s reward. (Matthew 16:27, Romans 2:6, 1st Corinthians 3:13, Revelation 2:23,26,27; 22:12)
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