The verses read,
28 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. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Rom. 8:28-30, NIV)
According to I. H. Marshall, these verses are a detailed description of the process of God’s call to men through the Gospel, which is his “purpose,” and a description of those who love God, that is, those who have answered this call.[1] Marshall writes,
“In the passage which begins in 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. 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 not described in detail, begins before God’s calling with His foreknowing and predestinating. 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.
The traditional idea of foreordination to salvation is to be found, if anywhere, therefore in the verb προγινώσκω. 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. 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… His readers are 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 for 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.” [2]
An interesting feature of verse 30 is that Paul puts the “golden chain” of salvific events in the past tense. Marshall comments,
“The past tenses…may 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…Paul may here be thinking of the anticipation of final glorification which takes place partially and proleptically in this life (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Marshall continues by noting the necessity of faith and Paul’s purpose to strengthen faith in the midst of suffering.
“But the continuation of this process [predestination, calling, justification, glorification] 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.”[3]
“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 who 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.”[4]
The only biblical rationale Calvinists give for linking faith to predestination to salvation is their interpretation of Eph. 2:1 and 8.
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…” (Eph. 2:1, NIV) and “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…” (Eph. 2:8, NIV)
Calvinists claim that the word “dead” refers to a “total depravity” that includes the inability for anyone to exercise faith unless they are among those unconditionally elected to salvation; that is, God must give a person faith, and he does so only for the elect he has chosen for salvation. In Calvinist thought, if faith is not given by God to those predestined to salvation as part of their unconditional election, then it must be considered a “work” of the person or meritorious towards “achieving” one’s own salvation and therefore something in which one can “boast.” Calvinists think that if faith is anything other than God’s efficacious work and a gift to those unconditionally elected to salvation, then it must be something a person contributes to their salvation, and therefore salvation is not “all of grace.” Man would share in God’s glory by contributing faith to his own salvation. Therefore, according to the Calvinist, “the gift of God” in verse 8 is faith. It is reserved only for the elect. But as Frederic L. Godet has said, “How can faith be a merit, that which in its essence is precisely the renunciation of all merit?” (Godet, Romans, 373.)
But these interpretations of Eph. 2:1 and 8 are incorrect. Firstly, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked” does not equate to “you cannot believe unless God gives you faith based on your unconditional election.” Faith, everywhere in Scripture, is spoken of as a possibility for sinners. This is because it is also spoken of as their responsibility. Considering all that the Bible says about the nature and purpose of faith, the Calvinist’s interpretation is surely an erroneous conclusion shaped by their deterministic theology rather than the biblical testimony. Their view seems rooted in an extrapolation upon the historical concerns of Luther and Calvin regarding the Roman Catholic system of salvation by works, which they so rightly fought against in their day. But in countering a “righteousness by works” theology, it is biblically unfounded to go on to consign the response of faith to the category of “works” and remove it from its biblical place as the only appropriate response of the sinner to God’s gracious provision of salvation for all persons, a salvation that we could never provide for ourselves. The Calvinist view of faith is a necessary logical corollary to their prior mistaken doctrine that election is unconditional and refers to God’s decree in eternity past to save only a certain number of select individuals. Before the world was even created or the elect ever existed, God predetermined who would be saved and who would not. God therefore causes every detail regarding the salvation of these elect individuals to occur. This would include the phenomenon of believing. God causes the elect to believe.
The second error the Calvinist makes is grammatical. In Eph. 2:8, the Greek grammar requires that “faith,” which is feminine, cannot be linked to the “this” or defined as “the gift of God,” both of which are neuter. So the grammar in the Greek text does not support the Calvinist’s doctrine of total depravity or any irresistible bestowal by God of faith. The “this” and “the gift” are grammatically linked to “salvation,” not “faith.” Therefore, these neuters refer to the whole previous phrase “for by grace you have been saved…” The grammar of “and this not of yourselves” and “the gift of God” translates to “the grace that brought salvation through faith.”
Again, an interpretation of faith as granted to a limited number of elect individuals that God has predetermined to save cannot be supported, given the whole testimony of Scripture regarding the definition and nature of faith as something sinners are called to do as a response to the gospel. This Calvinist view is incoherent with the content and purpose of the gospel. As such, we can conclude that the Calvinist meanings of “God’s eternal decree,” election, predestination, etc. are not biblically accurate.
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, UK: Paternoster Press, 1995), 102.
[2] Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 101-102.
[3] Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 102-103.
[4] Marshall, Kept by the Power of God, 103.
The Truth of the Gospel 