In Romans 8:28-39, Paul wrote,
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 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.
What then shall we say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (ESV)
I. Howard Marshall on Romans 8:28ff.
I. Howard Marshall comments,
“In the Epistle to the Romans there is a strong emphasis upon the election of believers to salvation…
The passages which interest us particularly are found towards the end of ch. 8 and in chs. 9-11.
In the passage which begins at Romans 8:28 Paul states that everything works for good for those who love God, i.e. those who are called according to His purpose. God has a purpose of salvation for men, in accordance with which He calls them by the Gospel, and the persons described in this verse are those who have answered this call, as is plain from the fact that they now love God. Salvation thus depends upon God’s purpose and call and upon human response to that call.”[1]
Note here the hermeneutical principle that we have stressed repeatedly so we might rightly interpret Scripture, and in particular, controversial texts like this one in Romans 8. Note what Marshall says about those who are “called according to his purpose.” The “call” is the Gospel call. It is that essential element in the content of the gospel message preached that calls sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus. We saw this in our study of the nature of faith in Scripture, and we see it throughout Romans. At the very beginning of the letter, Paul states that through Jesus, he “received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:5-6, NIV). Paul then gives thanks to God “because your faith is being reported all over the world” (1:8, NIV). Paul clearly establishes that salvation is for everyone and that it comes by faith when he writes, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (1:16-17, NIV). J. B. Phillips translates these verses as follows,
“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. I see it as the very power of God working for the salvation of everyone who believes it, both Jew and Greek. I see in it God’s plan for imparting righteousness to men, a process begun and continued by their faith. For, as the scripture says: ‘The just shall live by faith’. (1:16-17, JBP)
Paul then argues that both Jews and Greeks, that is, all people, are under sin (Rom. 3:9, ESV). Yet even though all have sinned, they are justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Rom. 3:23-25, ESV). God is just and the justifier of “the one who has faith in Jesus” (3:26, ESV). We need not belabor the point here, for Paul makes the nature of faith clear in Romans chapters 4 and 5, and I discussed this fully in Chapter 15, “The Nature of Faith in Scripture.” So, the point is that any Calvinist interpretations of chapters 8–11 that claim the individual’s salvation is unconditional simply ignore Paul’s teaching on the nature and function of faith. It needs to be clearly stated that nowhere in Scripture is a person predestined to faith, or that persons are caused by God to believe as part of an unconditional election to salvation. Such a deterministic, unconditional election disregards and negates Paul’s teaching about the nature of faith in Romans and his other epistles.
Getting back to Romans 8:28-39 and Marshall’s explanation of this text, note that the persons referred to here are “those who love God.” They are those who have answered the gospel call. They are believers. These are elements in the context that need to be observed and guide our interpretation here. Recall that Calvinists are notorious for ignoring context and using isolated verses to affirm their theological presuppositions rather than exegete the text. Marshall continues,
“The following verse (29) gives the grounds for the statement that we know that all things work together for good. We know this because God’s plan for us is one that stretches as far as glorification.
The process, which is now described in detail, begins before God’s calling with His foreknowing and predestining. God has set Christians apart beforehand for the purpose of glorification. Predestination in this message therefore refers strictly to God’s final aim for His people.”[2]
This is an important point. Predestination is not God having determined from eternity past who he will save and who he will not save. Predestination refers to what God has in store for believers. Those who freely believe in Jesus are “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (v. 29). Predestination does not refer to those whom God has unconditionally elected to salvation by an “effectual call.” As we shall see, these doctrines are nowhere to be found in the text. They are read into the text by Calvinist interpreters. Marshall argues the following about the Calvinist’s interpretation of ‘those whom he foreknew.” (v. 29)
“The traditional idea of foreordination to salvation is to be found, if anywhere, therefore, in the verb προγινὠσκω. The verb means ‘to know at a former time’ and hence ‘to know beforehand.’ The ‘knowing’ here is generally understood in the Hebraic sense of fixing one’s loving regard upon a person. But although the Hebrew verb yada comes close in meaning to bahar, ‘to choose,’ it has rather the sense of an intimate knowledge of the person in question. The prefix προ- has been traditionally understood of God’s purpose formulated in past eternity, but F. J. Leenhardt claims that it implies simply that God’s loving regard rests upon men before they are aware of it.[3] The context gives some support to this interpretation. Paul’s concern is with believers who are looking forward to the ‘redemption of the body’ but are tempted to despair of ever reaching the goal because of their present sufferings. He therefore emphasizes that the plan which God has formed for his people, those whom he already knows to be His, is that they should ultimately be like His Son and share His image (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:49). His readers can be sure that this plan will be fulfilled because God has already begun to carry it out by calling them. The verb thus refers to the loving knowledge which God already has of his people. It does not refer to the separation of the elect and consequent rejection of the reprobate, a thought which is not present in the context.[4] The purpose, then, which God has already formed for those He ‘knows’ as His people is glorification.” [5]
Note the importance of context again. Marshall continues.
“The intervening steps are now set out. God called them, He justified them, He glorified them. At every point it is God who has acted. The past tenses, especially ἐδόζασεν, may be thought to indicate the certainty of the process, but it is more likely that they refer to what has already in fact happened in the lives of Paul’s readers; while ‘glorification’ is normally to be regarded as something future, Paul may here be thinking of the anticipation of final glorification which takes place partially and proleptically in this life (2 Corinthians 3:18).[6]
But the continuation of the process requires a human response. Justification in Paul is always by faith, so that the completion of the whole chain of blessings is dependent upon faith. Thus in v. 17 future glorification is dependent upon the believer’s readiness to suffer now. This is emphasized by J. Wesley who comments: ‘And whom he justified – provided they “continue in his goodness,” Romans 11:22, he in the end glorified – St. Paul does not affirm, either here or in any other part of his writings, that precisely the same number of men are called, justified and glorified. He does not deny that a believer may fall away and be cut off between his special calling and his glorification, Romans 11: 22. Neither does he deny that many are called who are never justified. He only affirms that this is the method whereby God leads us step by step towards heaven.’[7] / [8]
Hence, Marshall draws the following conclusions.
“While, then, this passage is concerned to emphasize that it is God who is at work in the believer and that consequently suffering cannot separate the believer from God, nothing is said which would eliminate the need for faith or which would suggest that faith is a gift of God only to a predestined group of the elect. The purpose of the section as a whole is to strengthen faith in the face of suffering and opposition, and its conclusion is full of assurance for faith. If God is on the side of the believer, then nothing conceivable can separate him from the love of God (Romans 8:31-39). For the person that will receive them all the resources of God are available. We may be permitted to ask whether a person may fail to make use of these resources, but nothing can disguise the fact that here Paul’s tone is one of exalted optimism and assurance.”[9]
I consider Marshall’s exegesis to be both a reasonable and responsible handling of the details of this text. I have said that if the non-Calvinist can offer a hermeneutically sound interpretation of these controversial texts, the Calvinist interpretations can be dismissed because they are not reasonable (i.e., they produce incoherence and contradictions, etc.), and they are not responsible (i.e., they ignore context and prematurely flee to ‘mystery,’ etc.).
Why no Mention of Faith in the “Golden Chain”
Romans 8:30 is often referred to as the “golden chain” of salvation. Calvinists use it to support their deterministic definitions of predestination and effectual calling. Therefore, they see this text as supporting their TULIP scheme of salvation. But we have seen how these Calvinist doctrines impose a theistic determinism onto texts like this, causing incoherence, inconsistencies, and contradictions.
The necessity of faith was spoken about above as not something predestined or predetermined and therefore caused by God in those he has unconditionally elected to salvation. Throughout Scripture, faith is presented as something that sinners themselves are responsible for. The person is responsible to believe upon hearing the “good news” of their salvation, that is, the gospel call. So, before we even begin to read, exegete, and attempt to understand the passages in Romans 8, esp. v. 28 ff., and chapters 9, 10, and 11, we must keep in mind all that Paul has expounded previously in this epistle on the nature of faith and salvation by faith. Nothing said in Romans 8:28ff. should or need be interpreted in contradiction or in “tension” with the necessity and responsibility of the sinner to believe the gospel, which presupposes substantial free will, which is also the basis of their culpability for their unbelief.
So why isn’t faith listed in this “golden chain?” Faith is not included here because Paul’s point is to bolster the assurance of God’s work and protection in the life of the one who already believes. God is assuring the believer that his work on their behalf will ultimately result in their good. These believers are “those who love God” and are “called according to his purpose,” which is to “be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (vss. 28-29) God will protect and sustain them against anything that might attempt to “separate [them] from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (vss. 35-39). God will “graciously give [them] all things,” that is, what is conducive to conformity to the image of Christ Jesus (v. 30). The sinner’s response of faith, which is integral in the phrases “he also called,” and “those whom he called,” as Marshall has argued is the gospel call to salvation, is, nevertheless, not Paul’s emphasis here. The spotlight is completely on God’s work on behalf of the believer, that is, God’s work of having predestined believers “to be conformed to the image of his Son.” The emphasis is on God’s love (e.g., “foreknew” (v. 29); “the love of Christ” (v. 35); “him who loved us” (v. 37); “love of God in Christ Jesus” (v. 39), and his keeping power (e.g., “predestined” (v. 30); “called” (v. 30); “justified” (v. 30); “glorified” (v. 30); “God is for us” (v. 31); “God who justifies” (v. 33); “interceding for us” (v. 34): “who shall separate us from the love of Christ” (v. 35); “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (v. 37); indeed, nothing can separate us from “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39). The Calvinist’s insistence that these verses teach an unconditional election or predestination of the individual to salvation has not even entered Paul’s mind.
Those believers God has predestined to conformity to Christ, he called by the gospel, justified, and glorified. The aorist tenses communicate that the God who displayed his sovereign ability to work out salvation for all in Jesus Christ is going to carry through on his saving intentions for those who have believed and continue to put their trust in him. And as we see in his other epistles, Paul employs from the Old Testament the designation “elect” to refer to believers. Paul does not use the term as the cause of a person’s salvation, as in unconditional election, but of believers in accord with God’s covenant relationship to the Israelites of the Old Testament. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (8:33, ESV). Paul is instructing believers in the security of their salvation by rehearsing the major points of God’s work that involve him predestining them to conformity to Jesus. God called them in the Gospel message, God justified them, and he glorified them, in the aorist tense, because that too is assured to happen. And we are told that God foreknew (vs. 29) or had “an intimate knowledge” of those who believe. And if you prefer, we can concede to the Calvinists’ interpretation here, even whom he “foreloved,” or “set his love upon” – for God loves those who freely love him by believing in Jesus! And again, for these believers – “those who love God” (v. 28) – we are also told that they are “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.” (v 29) This is not “predestination” to faith or salvation, but to what God intends for his believing children – to be like Christ – to be conformed to his image. This happens even through, and perhaps only through, the suffering they are experiencing. But that is why Paul also assures them that “all things work together for good” for “those who love God” (v. 28). God himself will make sure of this. They do not suffer for nothing. Everything they are experiencing passes through God’s love and care for them. So, the emphasis here is on God’s love and keeping power for believers, not the doctrine of faith, except to refer to believers as “those who love God” (v. 28) and are “called” to faith in the gospel (v. 30).
After all these assurances about the Spirit helping these believers in their weakness (v. 26), and that the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (v. 27), and God working all things together for good for those who love God, those called according to his purpose in the gospel (v. 28), we are then told that God foreknew these believers and therefore predestined them to be confirmed to the the image of his Son (v. 29). And then in summary fashion Paul says that those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (v. 30). Paul then asks the following probing questions and gives the answers. These questions and answers are the commentary on all that Paul explained above. Note the following: that the Son was given up “for us all” (v. 32), that “God’s elect” are the believers who have been justified (v. 33), the tribulation and persecution these believers are experiencing (v. 35), and the guarantee that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39). We know and experience God’s love in Christ Jesus (Rom, 5:8).
Jack Cottrell on The Relation of Foreknowledge to Predestination and Election
The Calvinist will focus on the word “elect” in verse 33, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? (ESV). The eminent theologian Jack Cotrell provides an explanation of the Arminian position on the doctrine of election. He points out that election is both individual and conditional. He writes,
“The main problem with determinist or Calvinistic election is its unconditional nature, not its particularity. It is proper to reject the former, but doing away with the latter is an overreaction and a distortion of the Bible’s own teaching. The popular idea that “God determined the plan, not the man” is too limited an idea. The fact is that God predestines both. Predestination is individual or personal.
This is the way the Bible speaks. When it refers to predestination to salvation, it always refers to persons who are predestined and not just to some abstract, impersonal plan. This is so obvious that it hardly seems necessary to mention it. In Romans 8:29-30 Paul is speaking of persons. The same persons who are predestined are also called, justified, and glorified. In II Thessalonians 2:13 he says that “God has chosen you,” the Christian people of Thessalonica, “for salvation.”
…Another point that should be mentioned is that Revelation 17:8 speaks of those “whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.” This is a negative statement; but it would be meaningless to say that some persons’ names have not been written in the book of life since the beginning unless there are others whose names have been written there from the beginning.”[10]
Cottrell draws the following conclusions.
“…Election, then, is not limited to an impersonal plan but applies to persons as well. But does it apply to particular persons? Are specific individuals predestined to salvation? The answer is yes. No other view can do justice to Biblical teaching in several respects.
…How is it possible that God could determine even before creation which individual will be saved, and could even write their names in the book of life? The answer is found in the fact and nature of God’s foreknowledge. The Bible explicitly relates predestination to God’s foreknowledge, and a correct understanding of this relationship is the key to the whole question of election to salvation.
Romans 8:29 says, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become confirmed to the image of his Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.” Peter addresses his first epistle to those “who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (I Peter 1:1-2). In other words, God’s foreknowledge is the means by which he has determined which individuals shall be confirmed to the image of his Son (in his glorified resurrection body).
To say that God has foreknowledge means that he has real knowledge or cognition of something before it actually happens or exists in history. This is the irreducible core of the concept, which must be neither eliminated nor attenuated. Nothing else is consistent with the nature of God.”[11]
In footnote number 18 on page 341, Cottrell warns against accepting the Calvinist’s redefinition of “foreknowledge” or “foreknew” to “foreloved.” Cottrell observes that “the idea of cognition is made subordinate to some other concept,” pointing out that it is “an arbitrary definition” that is inconsistent with Acts 2:23 “where it can mean no more than prescience.” We should take what Cotrell says here seriously, although I believe nothing is lost if by “those whom he foreknew” (8:29, ESV) Paul is referring to anyone who believes in Jesus. God, although he knows who will believe (specifically), also loves those who respond in faith to the gospel call in general. God foreknows this corporate group, and predestines them “to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (v. 29, ESV).
Cottrell also states that “nothing else is consistent with the nature of God.” Indeed, in William Lane Craig’s book on the subject of divine foreknowledge, he stresses this point by quoting from Stephen Charnock’s classic systematic theology, The Existence and Attributes of God. Commenting on Isaiah 41:21-24, Charnock writes,
“Such a foreknowledge of things to come is here ascribed to God by God himself, as a distinction of him from all false gods. Such a knowledge that, if any could prove that they were possessors of, he would acknowledge them as gods as well as himself: “that we may know that you are gods.” He puts his Deity to stand or fall upon this account, and this should be the point which should decide the controversy whether he or the heathen idols were the true God. The dispute is managed by this medium: he that knows things to come is God; I know things to come, ergo I am God: the idols know not things to come, therefore that are not gods. God submits the being of his Deity to this trial. If God knows things to come no more than the heathen idols, which were either devils or men, he would be, in his own account, no more a God than devils or men …It cannot be understood of future things in their causes, when the effects necessarily arise from such causes, as light from the sun and heat from the fire. Many of these men know; more of them, angels and devils know; if God, therefore, had not a higher and farther knowledge than this, he would not by this be proved to be God, any more than angels and devils, who know necessary effects in their causes. The devils, indeed, did predict some things in the heathen oracles, but God is differenced from them here…in being able to predict things to come that they knew not, or things in their particularities, things that depended on the liberty of man’s will, which the devils could lay no claim to a certain knowledge of. Were it only a conjectural knowledge that is here meant, the devils might answer they can conjecture, and so their deity were as good as God’s…God asserts his knowledge of things to come as a manifest evidence of his Godhead; those that deny, therefore, the argument that proves it, deny the conclusion, too; for this will necessarily follow, that if he be God because he knows future things, then he that doth not know future things is not God; and if God knows not the future things but only conjecture, then there is no God, because a certain knowledge, so as infallibly to predict things to come, is an inseparable perfection of the Deity.”[12]
Cottrell states,
“He cannot help but foreknow, just because he is God. He sees the entire scope of every individual’s lifetime long before it flashes on the screen of history. Then by means of this foreknowledge he can and does determine every individual’s destiny – even before the foundation of the world.”[13]
So how does this view differ from the Calvinist view? Cottrell states,
“The watershed is not between particular and general, but between conditional and unconditional election. The Calvinistic error is avoided by affirming conditional election.
The foreknowledge of God has been emphasized. God elects individuals according to his foreknowledge. But the question may well be asked, foreknowledge of what? The answer is that he foreknows whether an individual will meet the conditions for salvation which he has sovereignly imposed. What are these conditions? The basic and all encompassing condition is whether a person is in Christ, namely, whether one has entered into a saving union with Christ by means of which he shares in all the benefits of Christ’s redeeming work. Whom God foreknew to be in Christ…he predestined to be glorified like Jesus himself.
This is the import of Ephesians 1:4, which says that “he chose us in Him” – in Christ – “before the foundation of the world.” The elect are chosen in (en) Christ, that is, because they are in Christ: they are not chosen into (eis) Christ, that is in order that they may be in Christ. They are in Christ before the foundation of the world not in reality but in the foreknowledge of God.
That basic condition for election is our being in Christ preserves the Christological character of predestination…It must not be forgotten that Jesus Christ is the elect one, and that all other redemptive election is in him. Thus even though election is conditional, it all depends upon Christ and the gracious benefits of his saving work.
Of course, there are also conditions which one must meet in order to be in Christ, i.e., in order to enter into saving union with Him and to remain in this union. The basic condition is faith (Gal. 3:26; Eph. 3:17: Col. 2:12). Other related conditions are repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12). These conditions are in no way to be interpreted as meritorious on man’s part, since they are graciously and sovereignly imposed by God himself. Thus having set forth these conditions for being in Christ, God foreknows from the beginning who will and who will not meet them. Those whom he foresees as meeting them are predestined to salvation.
How, then, is Biblical predestination to be described? The determinist says, “God unconditionally selects sinners and predestines them to become believers.” This is contrary to the teaching of Scripture, however, which instead says, in effect, that God selects all believers and predestines them to become his children in glory.
In other words, it is important to see exactly what it is to which individuals are elected. They are predestined to salvation itself, not to the means of salvation. They are not predestined to become believers; they are not predestined to faith. Their choice of Jesus Christ is not predestined; the choice is foreknown, and the subsequent blessings of salvation are then predestined.”[14]
We see an important truth here that was affirmed in our Old Testament biblical survey on the lives of the patriarchs. That truth is that faith is a condition for righteousness which God credits to the one believing. We see Paul affirming this in Rom. 10:1-4.
“Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” (Rom. 10:1-4, NIV)
That is, salvation comes by faith, the nature of which is a condition that depends upon the person, not God. Faith is a condition established by God himself as the only appropriate response to the gospel by which salvation, by virtue of being “in Christ,” is bestowed on the sinner. It’s worth noting here that contrary to any concept of Calvinist unconditional election or predestination, Paul’s heart’s desire and even “prayer to God” is that the Israelites may be saved. There is no exclusive, deterministic salvation here! Rather, the issue is that the Israelites “did not submit to God’s righteousness.” (10:3) What is “God’s righteousness?” “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” (10:4) Christ is God’s righteousness, and that righteousness comes to everyone who believes. In our study of Romans 9-11, we will see that the Calvinist’s interpretation of these chapters makes no sense given Paul’s arguments throughout Romans and his other epistles.
Getting back to the Arminian position on Romans 8:28-30, Cottrell maintains that foreknowledge plays a role in election. What is foreknown is the way a person will respond to the gospel. God knows those who respond in faith to the gospel. He foreknows those who believe, and because they believe, it is they whom God predestined or elected to salvation. Predestination or election is conditional and refers to the salvation of the believer. Predestination or election is not unconditional as in Calvinism, where these refer to God’s predetermined choice of specific persons who will be saved, leaving all others without the possibility of salvation. Cottrell’s conditional faith view is that God elects or predestines to the blessings of salvation those whom he foreknew would believe in Christ. This is very different than the Calvinist’s unconditional election view in which God predestined that only certain people would believe and be saved.
Cottrell supports his position with Romans 8:29, pointing out that it says that those whom he foreknew were predestined by God “to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.” Cottrell says that “first-born” is a reference to his resurrection and glorified state (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5). Being conformed to his image is therefore to receive a glorified body just like his and become his glorified children. Cottrell also references Ephesians 1:5, which speaks about us being predestined to adoption as children. Cottrell sums up as follows.
“The Biblical doctrine of election, then, definitely includes the conditional election of individuals to salvation. Through his foreknowledge God sees who will believe on Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord, and become united with him in Christian baptism; then even before the creation of the world he predestines these believers to share the glory of the risen Christ.”[15]
It seems to me that Cottrell’s view is slightly different than the standard Arminian view. I think that Cottrell’s view is not that God foresees who will believe and then God predestines or elects them in the Calvinist sense, that is, that if God didn’t predestine or elect them then they would never believe (in time) and be saved. Perhaps in this concept of election the Arminian feels obligated to incorporate the Calvinist definitions of election and predestination into their view. That is, God foresees who will believe and then elects them, and it is their being among the elect that saves them. Granted, one’s election is based on foreseen faith, but the election or predestination still maintains a determinative aspect to it. The believer has to be elected or predestined by God in order to be saved. In contrast, a simpler view might maintain that people hear the gospel and either believe or remain in unbelief. Those who believe in Jesus are considered among the elect in accord with the relationship of God to Israel in the Old Testament, and as such are described as “elect” or “chosen.” As such, election or being among the elect refers to how God views believers as his special, chosen people, and predestination refers to the blessings he has in store for his elect (i.e., believers).
It seems to me that the difference between the “simpler view” and Cottrell’s view is that he attempts to take the references to divine foreknowledge seriously when found in context with election or predestination. This is important to consider.
Romans 8:28: “Called According to His Purpose”
What does the phrase “called according to his purpose” mean? (v. 28, ESV) What was God’s “purpose?” God’s “purpose” is for Christ to have “many brothers,” with him as the “firstborn.” Therefore God “calls” men and women to Christ by the gospel message, that is, the “good news” is proclaimed to everyone by which they are “called” (not ‘effectually’) to believe in Christ and be saved. Those who respond to this call in repentance and faith Paul describes as “those who love God.” It was the eternal purpose of God to accomplish salvation “in Christ” and offer that salvation to all. Those who believe, that is, those who “love him” (v. 28), can also be understood from within the perspective of God’s omniscience as those whom “God foreknew,” that is, those who would believe. God also “predestined them [believers] to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Rom. 8:29)
Therefore, Paul can continue to expound on God’s program as a progression of events beginning beforehand in “those whom he foreknew” would freely respond to the gospel. These are “those who love God” (v. 28), that is, those who believe in Christ. Paul then refers to these believers, still from the eternal perspective of God’s foreknowledge, as” those whom he predestined,” that is, not to salvation as mentioned above, but “to be conformed to the image of his Son.” (v. 29). Now, Paul steps into time by saying that those whom God foreknew would freely believe and therefore predestined to be conformed to “the image” of Jesus, “he also called.” (v. 30) Here Paul has stepped into the historical happening that God has brought to pass by his sovereign will and work. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection produced the message of “good news.” By this gospel message, sinners are “called” to salvation by faith. The “called according to his purpose” has already been mentioned by Paul. They were those “who love God.” They are those who freely believe the gospel. God provides this gospel ‘call.’ Without this call, they could not believe. Furthermore, in accord with the context of suffering and persecution, there is the comfort of the Spirit’s intercession on behalf of believers, and the need for assurance that the will of God will be accomplished despite their weaknesses (Rom. 8:26-27).
Behind all this is the response of faith. Faith is not directly mentioned due to Paul’s emphasis on the heavenly, eternal plans and purposes of God by which he aims to comfort believers in persecution. This takes precedence over a discussion of the dynamic of faith by which one appropriates salvation. That was the subject in previous chapters (3: 21-4:25). And this is why we have the lofty terms that are, from God’s point of view, the elements of both salvation and assurance of God’s care and protection – foreknew, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. What is in view here is the faithfulness of God to believers experiencing suffering and persecution (8:15-27). Of course, all that God has accomplished in Christ comes to the sinner by the response of faith. But again, faith is not the emphasis here. Paul, of course, gives formal teaching about faith in other chapters in Romans and his other epistles. So, we are certainly not ignorant about the necessity and nature of faith for salvation. But what can be said about this salvation that is of comfort during suffering? Paul can stress God’s eternal point of view, his plans for those that love him, and that nothing can separate them from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It can be pointed out that God has sovereign control over the provision of salvation and therefore he can be relied on to preserve those who love him through their persecutions and sufferings.
Now, if “those whom he foreknew” carries at all the Calvinist interpretive sense of “to set his love upon,” whatever that entails, it must not jettison all that Paul has said about the dynamic of a freewill response of faith to the gospel of God in Christ. Therefore, “to set his love upon” refers to the love with which he loves those who love him “in Christ.” Both God’s love to us and our response of love to him are both focused on and come through Christ. It is through Christ that God deals with us as sinners. God has a special place in his heart and plans for those who respond to his Son in faith and love. Of course, God first loved us, but to love God in return certainly secures a special place in his plans and designs for those who do so. God does not abandon us, especially in suffering and persecution. God is pleased when sinners reciprocate his initiating love shown to us “in Christ” by trusting in Christ. To believe in Christ is to believe in God and acknowledge his way of salvation. But it is also to be assured of his faithfulness to us. Nothing can separate us from “the love of Christ” (v. 35) or the “love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 39).
Therefore, election refers to this status of the believer as grounded in God’s eternal disposition of love in his saving purpose in Christ Jesus. Those who believe in God’s saving work in Christ have been predestined to adoption and conformity to the image of Christ.
“Predestined” in Romans 8:29 and 30
Causing certain predetermined persons to come to faith in Christ and salvation is not in view here as the purpose and goal of predestination. Paul uses the term “predestined” with reference to the design and plan God has in store for believers, not indicating that certain persons are predestined to be believers. “Predestined” does not refer to a decision of God made in eternity past by which he selected a limited number of specific persons out of all humanity to be saved. It refers to the decision God made in eternity past to conform those who believe to the image of his Son (8:29). The “pre” emphasis here indicates the firm assurance that his saving plans and design for those who love him are rooted in what God knew and planned from the beginning. Believers are assured of salvation all the way to glorification because they have been in the mind and heart of God as participants in what he has purposed with respect to salvation “in Christ” from before time began. Although God knows all things beforehand, all this begins to apply particularly in time for those who respond in faith to the gospel message. Believers, especially those experiencing persecution, need to know that this is not a divine whim or caprice that can be derailed by earthly, temporal circumstances. Therefore, “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (v. 28, NIV) Believers in Christ are God’s loving concern. Nothing can interfere or separate them from what God had planned for them. No one can do anything to thwart the “good” that God will bestow upon his children. Indeed, whatever the believer experiences, even if it is not good here and now, will “work together for good.” The “good” here is defined in the context of God’s eschatological salvation. The grand plan of God involves predestination, calling, justification, and glorification. Paul is not describing a deterministic sequence of events that unfailingly occurs in the lives of specific people God predestined to be saved. He is not delineating a sequential process that God effectually works only in a predestined number of elect persons he has chosen to save. Putting all these terms in the past tense reveals Paul’s intent. He is speaking from an eternal point of view; an accomplished salvation that applies to all those who believe. He is not here proclaiming the gospel message. These people are already believers. Rather, Paul is expounding the fullness of salvation from the divine point of view for the purpose of assurance of final glorification of believers who are suffering in the here and now. Because salvation is rooted in God’s eternal purposes, the believer can rest assured that it will not fail. It is the idea communicated in the context in verse 31 – “If God be for us…” Paul’s intention is to assure suffering believers, those who love God, that he knows them as his own. Indeed, God foreknew them as his own. They are foreknown, not only in their free response to the gospel, but also in what he has planned and purposed for those who do believe. They become his “elect” (v. 33) or chosen ones. And those God knows as his own are perfectly secure in the will of God because of God himself, whose plans and purposes are for their good and are sure to result in their glorification.
If Paul deemphasizes the response of faith here, it is to highlight the heavenly perspective and the dynamic involvement of the triune God in preserving “those who love God and are called according to his purpose” (8:28). The point to note is that Paul’s view has now shifted from dealing with the nature of salvation by faith as contrasted to works of the law – the dynamic that involves discussion of the human interactions with God’s revelation in Christ – to salvation from the transcendent, heavenly perspective of God eternal purposes. Therefore, Paul has left off discussion of the earthly, human response of faith to the “good news” as necessary for salvation to address the assurance of the love of God and secure salvation these believers have amid their persecution and suffering. He now discusses, from a more transcendent view, the foundation of their comfort, security, and preservation in the faith given their present situation. Paul now reflects on the purpose and outcome of the persecutions that “those who love God” are experiencing. The purpose is that they be “conformed to the image of his Son.” (8:29) And the outcome is completely secure because it is God himself who is keeping the believer by the intercession of Christ – “the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” (8:34) God, in Christ, has the power to preserve them. Romans 8:30, therefore, is a summary from a transcendent viewpoint of what God does for believers that will unfailingly result in their glorification. This is an encouraging and comforting thought for discouraged, persecuted believers; a thought as secure as God’s promise, character, and power to bring it to pass. The term used to describe these believers – “God’s elect” – contains the fullness of all these spiritual blessings. But it would certainly be foreign to the text and context to introduce a concept of salvific determinism that would contradict all that Paul has previously said about the nature of faith and its part in this “golden chain.” Faith is not here explicitly stressed or mentioned (except within the concept of “called,” and the phrase “those who love God”) because of Paul’s shift in emphasis to God’s keeping power of those who believe in the midst of persecution.
Note also that nowhere in Scripture is it indicated that a person is predestined to faith. Faith is everywhere spoken of in terms of conditionality and potentiality. Sinners are called to respond in faith and trust to God and Christ as Savior. It is believers that are being spoken of here. The free-will dynamic of faith is presupposed. Precisely because salvation is a dynamic faith relationship, believers suffering persecution need the assurance of God’s power to keep them in his love and care. If Paul was expounding on a predetermined election, not only would the nature of faith become redundant, but the various elements of this very passage and what Paul has argued previously would become confusing and be left unaccounted for. They would be interpretively incoherent. The “those who love God and are called according to his purpose” would become nonsense. Rather, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” is only coherent when love is given freely. According to Paul, “those who love him” are those who believe. These suffering believers need to know, from the point of view of God’s eternal purposes, that as believers in Christ, God has only “good” in mind and has indeed predestined them to be “conformed to the image of his Son.”
Believers also must wait for “adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (8:25). In the interim, “we do not know what to pray for as we ought.” Note, “the Spirit intercedes for God’s people…” It is “God’s people” that are in view here. “The people of God” are not constituted simply by being descendants of Abraham. They are the children of “the promise” by faith, so salvation can also be for the Gentiles. One becomes a child of “the promise” by believing in the “promise,” which has an implied meaning that extends to everything Christ has accomplished for the salvation of us sinners as the promised One.
Salvation History in Romans 8
According to Paul, how one comes to be part of “the people of God” is “by faith.” It is these believers that Paul can now also designate as “the elect.” I will examine the doctrine of election fully in Romans 9-11, but we can note here in Romans 8:29 and 30 that Paul is not trafficking in the explanation for an individual’s salvation. Rather, all these pro- words and concepts (e.g., purpose, foreknowledge, predestination, etc.) are a summary of salvation history. James D. G. Dunn writes,
“Here Paul obviously means to embrace the whole sweep of time and history, from beginning to end, within the scope of these two verses (προ – … ἐδόξασεν). Since προέγνων has such a full sense, the προώρισεν adds little to the meaning (cf. NJB).” (Dunn, Romans, p. 482. God’s foreknowing of those who would believe in him encompasses his predestination of them to the image of his Son. These are “those who are called according to his purpose.” That purpose is the salvation of sinners and the restoration of creation. Paul’s purpose in vss. 28-30 is to have “believers rest in the assurance that their part in the people of God is not accidental or random, but part of divine purpose whose outworking was already clearly envisaged from the beginning.”[16]
When one hears about Christ in the gospel message, they are hearing about an eternal divine plan of salvation that God purposed to bring to pass (cf. Gen. 3:15; 12:1-3). They are hearing about salvation history. When one believes in Christ, they are taking their part in that divine purpose which was in the mind and heart of God from eternity past. They thus take their part among the people of God, that is, the elect. Those who believe, God considers his chosen people according to the work God accomplished in the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through these patriarchs, God established a people for himself that he would call his “chosen people” or his “elect” because it is God who formed them into a nation for his universal salvific purposes. Israel is therefore called God’s chosen people. And as it was only those who had faith in God who were the true people of God, that is, the true Israel of God. Paul makes this distinction in Romans 9:6-8. He writes,
“For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.” (Rom. 9:6-8, NIV)
And so it is with the believer in Christ. They are the children of the promise. The believer in Christ enters into the culmination of God’s purposes for Israel. Therefore, God also includes and applies to believers the designation of “elect” that God gave to Israel in the Old Testament and now in the New Testament. Those who believe in Christ are the “children of the promise,” and they are also considered to be among God’s chosen people, not as “children of the flesh” of Abraham, but as “children of the promise”; they are counted as Abraham’s offspring, who was a man of faith (cf. Rom. 3:21-4:25).
What themes has Paul raised in the broader context of Romans 8:28? How is Paul thinking about these themes? What are his concerns, and what is his flow of thought? The broader context involves the thought that all of creation is moving towards God’s intended purposes for it (8:18-23). That God can bring about his purposes, and certainly will do so, is made abundantly clear throughout Scripture and is especially confirmed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The death and resurrection of Jesus fulfilled God’s eschatological purposes for all things, and we now await the consummation of all things “in Christ.” Those purposes include God’s love towards sinful mankind (vss. 28, 35, 37, 39) proclaimed in the gospel. Sinners are saved when they believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord.
The Comfort of God’s Foreknowledge, Election, Justification, and the Love of God in Christ Jesus
How are these believers to understand the persecution that has come upon them? Paul includes and indeed prioritizes God’s foreknowledge in this context. Believers need to know that they are foreknown by God, that is, included in his purposes which he had planned from eternity past. A person enters into those blessed plans and purposes by faith. They are not predestined to faith. Nor was any particular person’s salvation predetermined by an unconditional election. This is not the meaning of this section, and it is incoherent with both Paul’s arguments throughout Romans and his gospel message. The knowledge that we as believers are known by God and are encompassed within what God had in mind from eternity past regarding his salvation plans provides a deeper and fuller perspective on suffering as Christians. This perspective provides the assurance of God’s care and protection over us through persecution. To be part of God’s eternal saving purposes is to be in God’s care, both in the here and now and for eternity.
The divine work of salvation and its effects on those who believe its message are certainly “predestined” by God. The believer who is predestined to be confirmed to the image of Jesus has been called by the gospel, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. The “chain” will not be broken, not because it was predetermined for a special group, but because of the keeping power of God in those who continue in faith. Peter makes this clear in 1 Pet. 1:3-5.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Pet. 1:3-5, NIV)
Note again in Rom. 8:29 that predestination is to conformity to “the image of his Son,” not to faith or salvation. It is “those whom he foreknew that God has predestined (again, not apart from the teaching on the necessity of a faith response from the sinner), to be “conformed to the image of his Son.” Those “whom he foreknew” are those who believe.
More on the Meaning of “The Called”
Here we should say a word about the phrases “those who are called” (v. 28) and “those he predestined he also called” (v. 30). Calvinists take the word “called” here to mean an “effectual call,” an irresistible call or grace that is part and parcel of one’s unconditional election. But William Klein writes,
“God not only chose the church to be his own people, he achieved that act of ownership through his “call.” Though we encounter several nontechnical uses of the concept of “call: (as in Jesus’ statement, “many are called, but few are chosen”), the dominant technical sense makes clear that the “called ones” are those “called to be Christians.” The called are the saints, the faithful, the believers, the church, Christians (Ro 1:6; 1 Co 1:24; Jude 1; and Rev 17:14). All the foreknown and predestined ones are also called (Ro 8:29-30). Those who love God are the ones called (8:28).
Our study has suggested that the sense of “to give a name” captures the nuance of this technical sense of “call.” By the act of calling, those who were once not God’s people become the people of God (Ro 9:24-26; 1 Pe 2:9). “To name” better grasps the performative function of the action of calling than does the translation “to invite,” though at times the two senses are difficult to separate…In the action of calling, then, God names or appoints people to be his own. As God called Israel out from the nations to be his unique race, now he calls a new people into existence from among the inhabitants of the world – both Jews and Gentiles (Ro 9:24-26) Through God’s election and his covenant, Israel became God’s “son” (Ex 4:22-23; Hos 11:1; 1:10). Under the new covenant God calls Christian his sons and daughters (2 Co 6:18; Gal. 4:7; Ro 8:15; 9:26).
Since God called Christians to become his people, Paul can speak of them as “the called” (Ro 1:6; 8:28; 1 Co 1: 24) or “called saints” (Ro 1:7; 1 Co 1:2).
…” Calling” is his technical term, but this sense also occurs in the other New Testament writers. In Acts, Luke recognizes that when people “cross over the line” in repentance and baptism to receive forgiveness and become Christians, the divine activity involved is the call of God (Ac 2:39).
…Since people individually respond to the gospel to become Christians, is God’s “call” an action performed upon the individual? The evidence of the New Testament suggests that calling, like election, is primarily corporate in its orientation. The “call of God” brings into existence a people who have an obligation to exhibit God’s character in their actions. Richardson agrees:
Broadly speaking there is no emphasis at all in the New Testament upon the individual’s call, and certainly no suggestion that he ought to hear voices or undergo emotional experiences. The fact is that klesis is a social conception and it is significant that except in the special case of Paul in Rom 1:1 and 1 Cor 1:1 the word kletos is never found in the singular. Christians are corporately “the called” and corporately “the elect” and they are these things because they are one body in Christ, the Elect One.”[17] / [18]
So, Romans 8:30 is the bird’s-eye view of the purposes of God in the life of those believers who are experiencing persecution for their faith. Now, given their present negative circumstances that “those who love God” (i.e., believers) find themselves in, Paul assures them that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (8:28, NIV).
Is it worth the suffering? Is God aware of their suffering? In what sense is he aware of and active in their present suffering given his broader purposes for the world? What implications might their present circumstances have upon their standing with God from their point of view? Paul turns the tables, so to speak, to have them see their situation from the perspective of God’s eternal plans and purposes for those who believe and are “in Christ.” Paul wants them to know of the eternal purposes of God for their salvation in Christ. Believers are those whom he has predestined “to be conformed to the image of his Son.” He wants them to know “that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (8:28, NIV) This faith in Christ has now brought about suffering in their lives. But Paul is reasoning that they are not left without the intercession of the Spirit on their behalf (vss. 26-27) and that they “are more than conquerors through him who loved [them]” (8:37) and that nothing will “be able to separate [them] from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (8:39)
Final Thoughts
If Calvinist determinism were true, Paul could have explained all this more simply, with less complexity and in a more straightforward way. Indeed, he would be obliged to tell us the truth about how salvation, suffering, and perseverance are all predetermined and caused by God. He would be obliged to tell us about the “doctrines of grace.” He could have told us that God predetermined “whatsoever comes to pass.” People are believers because God causes them to believe. God even causes their suffering. For those predestined to salvation, they will gain heaven in the end. For those who are not predestined, they cannot be saved.
So why didn’t Paul explain these matters more fully since they have eternal consequences for the people reading this letter and for us today? Why doesn’t Paul, throughout Romans and in all his letters, explain salvation in a way that accords with the Calvinist’s theistic determinism and unconditional election? After all, the Calvinist “doctrines of grace” are the full and final explanation as to how and why a person is saved or not saved! If the Calvinist tells us that Romans 9-11 does just that, well, the question in reply is perfectly appropriate, which is, “What about the fact that the Calvinist’s interpretation of Romans 9 directly contradicts what Paul says in Romans 10 and 11?” Doesn’t that count against such an interpretation? If not, why not? Don’t Paul and all of Scripture present the nature of salvation and the nature of saving faith as conditional? Where is unconditional election? Context is important, both the immediate and the broader canonical context. To interpret the many facets of the biblical texts and theology coherently is not optional, and incoherent interpretations cannot be avoided and excused by hiding behind ‘mystery.’ The Calvinists and non-Calvinists can both produce verses to support their respective positions. But this “proof-texting” is not good interpretive practice. Verses need to remain in their contexts and be interpreted from within those contexts. When an interpretation is found to be incoherent, inconsistent, or contradictory with other verses and teachings in the immediate and broader context, then that interpretation is wrong and needs to be corrected. When interpretive conclusions are shown to be contradictory with other biblical truths, that is, logically and morally incompatible, then we have run up against a hermeneutical principle that we need to allow to correct such interpretations. That hermeneutical principle is interpretive coherence. We are incorrectly interpreting the Bible when we end up with logical and moral incoherence and theological contradictions. A responsible hermeneutic requires us to acknowledge that the Bible is not inherently contradictory and therefore the Calvinists’ interpretations of key passages, which are contradictory, need to be challenged and corrected. This is nowhere more true than in Romans 9-11.
Salvation in Jesus is God’s purpose. That people would be called to come to Christ through the proclamation of the gospel is also within this “purpose” of God. The preaching of the “good news” or the message of salvation for sinners is also “according to his purpose.” “According to his purpose” is a summary statement meaning “to bring the saving message of Christ’s person and work to sinners so they may be saved.” Those who respond to the “good news” are “those who love God” (8:28). This is why defining and defending the true biblical gospel is so important. This is why this controversy is so important. The gospel is at stake here.
Return to Chapter 16 – The Doctrine of Election According to Scripture
Footnotes
[1] I. Howard Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 3rd ed. (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1995), 101-102.
[2] Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 102.
[3] F. J. Leenhardt, The Epistle to the Romans, 1961, p. 233.
[4] See the criticisms offered by W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, Romans (ICC), Edinburgh, 19025, p. 217.
[5] Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 102.
[6] The earlier references to glory in the chapter (8:17, 18, 21) may be thought to require a future tense here also. In that case Paul may be using the aorist here by analogy with the other aorists and to stress the certainty of the hope expressed.
[7] J. Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, 1754, ad loc.
[8] Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 102-103.
[9] Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 103.
[10] Jack Cottrell, What the Bible Says About God the Ruler: The Doctrine of God, vol. 2 (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1984), 339, 340.
[11] Cottrell, What the Bible Says About God the Ruler, 340, 341.
[12] William Lane Craig, The Only Wise God: The Compatibility of Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2000), 29-30. From Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God (1682; reprint, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979), vol. 1, pp. 431-32.
[13] Cottrell, What the Bible Says About God the Ruler, 343.
[14] Cottrell, What the Bible Says About God the Ruler, 343-345.
[15] Cottrell, What the Bible Says About God the Ruler, 345.
[16] James D. G. Dunn, Romans 9–16, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 38B (Dallas: Word Books, 1988), 482.
[17] A. Richardson, An Introduction to the Theology of the New Testament, 274.
[18] William W. Klein, The New Chosen People: A Corporate View of Election (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2001), 274-275.
The Truth of the Gospel 