Pre-Launch Bible Study: Romans 8:28-30

Let’s say I told you that the 80s is the greatest decade of music in the history of the world (which is true). That’s a big claim. A claim that many of you might immediately question or doubt. If I’m going to make a claim like that, especially in a theatre that doubles as a regular concert venue, then I better have some major evidence to back that up… And let’s be honest, there’s plenty of evidence: Def Leppard, Michael Jackson, Air Supply, A-Ha, Prince, Journey, Genesis, the list goes on and on.

Romans 8:28 is a big claim—a massive claim.

Romans 8:28 ESV

²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

When you read that verse, my guess is there’s two types of responses to it. Some of us might just take it at face value, put it on our t-shirt, and move on. But I don’t think we’re getting the gravity of the idea that every single thing in your life—even the things that have been the worst moments in your life—God is working them together for good. You can’t breeze past that.

And that probably describes the other kind of response you might have reading this. You recognize the enormity of the claim, and it leaves you skeptical. “All things work together for good”? Really? You rightly want to know why and how.

Paul makes this massive claim in verse 28, and then he provides the evidence for it—the foundation for it—in verses 29-30. Let’s read all three verses:

Romans 8:28–30 ESV

²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ 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. ³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Right at the beginning of verse 28, Paul uses the phrase “And we know.” That, in itself, is a bold statement. He’s not just saying verse 28 is true but that we can know it is true. He’s actually contrasting his words back in verse 26:

Romans 8:26 ESV

²⁶ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

There are many things we don’t know in this broken and suffering world and the Spirit helps us in our not knowing. We don’t know how to pray in our weakness, Paul says… But, verse 28 says, we do know that God uses it, and everything else in our lives for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

So, I want that to be an encouragement for each of us tonight. If you are struggling right now, going through something in life, and don’t know what’s next or what to do, God says you can know that he is still actively working your circumstance for good if you know him.

And I qualify that statement saying “if you know him” because look at the first half of the verse: “for those who love God”. Paul is not saying that everything that happens in every persons life is going to be good for them in the end. No, there is a particular kind of good for a particular kind of person, and that person is described two ways in this verse: they love God and they are called by God.

Paul is describing people who love God, not those who love their good. Because, when God is our ultimate good, then anything else good in our life is seen through the lens of having him.

But, if we’re going to say God is working all things together for good to those who love him, it’s also important we define what Paul means by “good”. And he describes it in three different ways in the next two verses. In verse 29, he says we will be “conformed to the image of [God’s] Son.” Then, he elaborates at the end of the verse, saying we will be brothers of Jesus, who will be the firstborn (and that is a term of exaltation and honor). Finally, at the end of verse 30, he summarizes our ultimate good with a term he’s used a few times throughout the chapter: we will be “glorified.”

So, Paul is saying that God will use all things in our life for the good purpose of making us more like Jesus (glorifying us) and exalting Jesus (glorifying him). Those are the greatest goods, and Paul believes we can know that God will do it.

But, before we can ask how we can know that,  we should ask a couple more questions about his big claim. First off, what does he mean by “all things”? Like, good and bad? God is going to use my divorce for my good? He’s going to use my cancer for my good? He’s going to use this loneliness I feel for my good?

I want to bring us to a couple other verses, all written by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament, where he uses this same phrase,“all things”, so we can get a better idea of the scope behind his words.

Romans 11:36 ESV

³⁶ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

Ephesians 1:11–12 ESV

¹¹ In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹² so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Romans 8:32 ESV

³² 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?

1 Corinthians 3:21–23 ESV

²¹ So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

All things belong to God. All things are under his control. So, what makes us think he’s incapable of using all things in our life, both good and bad, for this ultimate, glorious good?

Honestly, for those of us looking backward into our past at our times of suffering and struggle, it might be easier to see how God has used that for our good than the pleasant times. Earlier in the book of Romans in chapter 5, Paul points out how God is able to use hardship in our life to strengthen our character to be more like Christ:

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

³ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴ and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Isn’t this promise from Romans 8:28 incredible? Paul has already said previously in verses 26-27 that God’s Spirit helps us in our weakness (which is something he can do because he dwells inside of us according to verse 11). But how does the Spirit help us? How does he pray to the Father for us? He’s praying that God would use everything, including our weakness, for our good, to conform us to the image of his Son.

And not just one day in the future. Both the love we have for God and the work God does for our good are in the present tense in the verse. Our God is actively working through all things in our life now. That’s an incredible promise that provides incredible hope.

But, like we mentioned last week, we can only hope in something in as much as we trust it. And Paul said this promise is for those who love God. Maybe you look at this verse and you’re wondering, Do I love God enough that this verse applies to me? Maybe I need to love him more for it to apply?

I don’t want to leave you there because Paul is not trying to base a promise of God on your ability to maintain it. That’s not grace. And, thankfully, he gives two qualifiers for this promise in verse 28: it is for those who love God and are called by God.

Now, to have one of these true about you is to have both of them true. Those who truly love God are called by God and those who are called by God will love God (more on that connection in a bit). But since the idea of being called by God is about something God does to us, I think it’s a helpful place for us to turn in understanding why we can trust this incredible promise.

Who are those who are “called”? Well, that word is used again in the immediate context, right in the middle of verse 30:

Romans 8:30 ESV

³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

This isn’t the external, general call of the gospel that I might give in a sermon; this is a special, internal call from God. And we can see this action of being called by God sits right between two other actions from God: him predestining and him justifying (declares righteous/can think of it as your conversion). That means that the way God justifies the people he predestines is by calling them.

Interestingly, Paul uses the same phrase to connect each of the four terms in verse 30: “Those whom he”. Not “some of those” (as if it God was drawing from the previous group), but all of those. All those he predestines he calls, all those he calls he justifies, all those he justifies he glorifies.

Because each phrase in the verse is constructed the same way creating a type of chain, we can’t say that one link is not inclusive without saying that all of them are. Either “some” or “all” must be the sense behind them collectively (e.g., If only some of those whom God calls are justified, then only some of whom God justifies will be glorified, which  Paul will disprove in vv. 31-39… “[nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”).

So, Paul is making the case that all of the people God calls he will justify/he will save. And if salvation is by grace through faith as Paul claims in Ephesians 2:8, then this 100% effectual calling must be the thing that creates that faith. Let’s look at a couple other places where we see this play out in Scripture:

1 Corinthians 1:22–24 ESV

²² For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified (general call), a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called (special call), both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Romans 4:17 ESV

¹⁷ as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

› “Lazurus, come out” (God’s call creates what it commands)

Now, we can see why Paul would qualify the promise of verse 28 as being for both  those who “love God” and those who “are called”. The former speaks to our external experience of our salvation and the latter to God’s internal work leading to our salvation.

ILLUSTRATION: Our son Oliver has some pretty bad reactions to mosquito bites. A couple days ago, he got bit on the inside of his foot, and last night it was really bothering him right at the start of bedtime—instead of winding down for sleep, he was crying and screaming from the discomfort. I gave him some medicine, nothing. This went on for several minutes with me trying various things.

But when I turned on our normal YouTube video of toys from the movie Cars being unboxed, it was immediate silence. Contentment. Joy. As soon as the video started, Ollie was peaceful. But you could also say that the video was was created that peace.

God calls us to place our faith in him and love him. But, like we read back in Romans 8:7, “the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” So, God does something. He calls us. And it’s 100% true that when he calls us, we free choose to come. But it’s also 100% true that his calling is what creates the faith in us to come.

John 6:44–45 ESV

⁴⁴ No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—

Why would God do it this way? Why has God called us? The end of verse 28 says it is all “according to his purpose”, and that purpose is detailed in the next two verses. In verse 29, Paul starts with the word “For”, which we can read as “Because.” His purpose is to predestine a people that he would conform to the image of his Son.

That word, “predestine”, can be a tough word to talk about, which is often why we might either get frustrated when we hear it or maybe avoid it by making jokes about it. But, here it is in the Bible. And if we as a church believe Paul is right when he wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that—

2 Timothy 3:16–17 ESV

¹⁶ All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

If we believe that, then we have to spend time asking what Paul means by this word. He actually uses the idea of God’s “purpose” again in the next chapter, Romans 9, in verse 11:

Romans 9:11 ESV

¹¹ though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—

So, predestination/election—they’re a biblical idea. And in Romans 8:28-30, Paul actually talks about them as an enormously positive thing! God’s predestining is the basis of our hope that God will work all things in our lives for the good of conforming us to the image of the Son. Why? Because if God has planned that, then he will accomplish that.

But there is another term in front of God’s predestining in verse 29: his “foreknowing”. If we want to understand what it means, and to what extent, that God predestined a people to save by his grace, we need to understand what it means that he foreknew.

Really, I think we only have two logical options here:

1. God predestines those he foreknew would choose him (meaning God could see beforehand the path we would choose). Or,

2. God predestines those he chose beforehand.

Ultimately, the difference between the two options comes down to who is decisive in our salvation: Is it us or God?

Let’s look at the option focused on us first. Is God’s foreknowledge him seeing who would place their faith in him, and then on that basis he predestines those people to be conformed to the image of his Son as verse 29 says?

We could go to some other places in the Bible, but for now I think we can just move forward one verse to verse 30 to see why I don’t think this option works within the text.

Romans 8:30 ESV

³⁰ And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Remember, Paul is saying there’s no drop-off from one phase to the next. All those who are predestined are justified. And how are we justified? By faith.

Romans 5:1 ESV

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, did we create that faith ourselves, or did God create that faith within us? If we could create it ourselves, then there wouldn’t need to be another step, but how is it that God gets from predestining people to justifying people in verse 30? He calls them. And 100% of those he calls are justified.

So, what is it that his calling must be doing then? Like we said earlier, God’s calling is how he creates faith. That means, even though we freely place our faith in Jesus, we are not decisive in our salvation because we cannot do anything apart from the faith God creates. We are responding to the work of God  in us.

Ephesians 2:1 ESV

¹ And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

Ephesians 2:8 ESV

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

So let’s look at option 2 for God’s foreknowledge. Does God simply choose us? I want to bring us to two verses and then we’ll see how it connect with the rest of our passage.

1 Corinthians 8:3 ESV

³ But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.

Notice the order of events in this verse. If anyone loves God—present tense—he is known by God—that Greek verb is actually perfect tense, which in Greek is a completed action with present results.

So, what happened first? We were known by God. And those who are known by God love God as a result. It’s Oliver and that YouTube video. His response is his own, but it was created by the video. One more: let’s go to Psalm 1:5-6.

Psalm 1:5–6 ESV

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,

nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

⁶ for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

but the way of the wicked will perish.

Verse 6 has a subtle difference in it. The Psalmist says God knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. Does God not know the way of the wicked? Of course he does. So, why only use the word to describe the righteous. Because the righteous are those who do not perish; those are the ones he chose to save.

That word, “know”, in the Old Testament is used most often to refer to intercourse (“and he knew her”), and that’s not an accident. It speaks to the most intimate choice of a relationship, and that’s also true of our God who has foreknown his people, choosing to enter into a personal and committed relationship with them.

At this point, I think a natural question (or maybe you can even call it an objection) arises: What about the people God doesn’t predestine?

One of the reasons people often shy away from how the Bible talks about predestination and the doctrine of election is because they think it means God is also choosing people to damn. But this assumes everyone starts at a neutral place and then God nonchalantly decides heaven for one person and hell for another.

But that’s not the picture the Bible presents of the gospel. Our starting point isn’t neutral; it’s sinful and separated from God as we’ve chosen an identity separate from his rule in our lives.

Romans 3:23 ESV

²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

If this is our starting point, then God isn’t obligated save anyone.

ILLUSTRATION: Macie loves to enter giveaways on social media (and is irrationally good at winning them). But when she’s one of a couple thousand people entering a giveaway for an Italian vacation and she doesn’t win, she doesn’t immediately think, “That’s not fair. I deserve that prize!”

Why not? Because the trip wasn’t hers to begin with and she hasn’t done anything to earn if. If she was chosen to win, then it’s not her getting what she’s owed; it’s her receiving a gift. Similarly, Romans 5:8 says…

Romans 5:8 ESV

⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

So, our salvation is not an act of entitlement, and it’s not an act of fairness; it’s an act of mercy. If you were to continue reading into the next chapter in Romans 9, you’ll find Paul dives deeper into this question, specifically asking if there is any injustice on God’s part. And while we shouldn’t pretend to be able to be in the mind of God to know why he would mercifully choose to save any of us from our sin, we can know that whether it’s in the display of his grace or in the display of his justice, God will be glorified as he works toward the promise of Revelation 21:5 to “make all things new.”

But why do this in the first place? Why does God predestine his people? When we go back to our text in Romans 8, Paul answers that question pretty simply: God is securing a family of many brothers of Jesus who are conformed to the image of his Son. He uses the same language of predestining at the start of his letter to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 1:3–5 ESV

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

This is the essence of what it means to be glorified. Think about it. Colossians 1:15 says “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Hebrews 1:3 says, “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”

In a lesser way Genesis 1:26 tells us we were original created in the image of God. But then we chose to create an image of ourselves (an identity) separated from the character and rule of God so that we could rule our own lives. That’s how sin entered the world and led to the disorder, decay, and death that exists now throughout creation like Romans 8:19-23 talked about.

But God… Before the foundation of the world, God had predestined a people created in his image—knowing they would break that image—to be conformed to Jesus, the perfect image of God by creating the faith within us we could not do ourselves through a new heart to trust in the work of Jesus rather than ourselves.

This is the definition of redemption and restoration, and the result from verse 29 is that Jesus is exalted to all of creation as the Savior and firstborn.

Romans 4:5 ESV

⁵ And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,

Jesus justifies the ungodly. Let that hit you for a minute in light of our passage tonight. God foreknows, predestines, calls, and justifies people like you and me who are sinners unable to clean ourselves up enough at every step of the way. Even after our justification, I can identify with Paul in the previous chapter saying, “I know the good that I want to do, but I don’t do that. I do the very thing that I hate… Wretched man that I am?”

Why would God do it this way where we cannot go through one step of the process without him? Where he planned to redeem a people and brings that purpose to completion? Because it exalts our Savior as our sovereign God over all things.

Look with me one more time at verse 30. How does God succeed in glorifying all that he predestines? The verses says he does two things: he calls and he justifies. You might read this verse and wonder: How do I know I’m predestined? Or, how can I be sure I’ll make it to the end and be glorified with Christ one day.

Because God is the one holding the chain, no one is lost (we’ll look at that next week), and you can be encouraged looking either direction. If you have come to Christ, if you have repented, turning from your life sinfully apart from God and trusted in his death and resurrection on your behalf. Then you have been justified by Christ. You’ve been declared righteous by God for something you didn’t do or earn while Jesus paid the penalty for what you have earned.

And, if God has justified you, you can praise God tonight knowing that means at some point in the past he called you, removing your heart of stone and giving you a heart of flesh to see and desire him and place your faith in him as Ezekiel 36 talks about. And if he called you, then you never have to wonder if he predestined you.

Conversely, if you’re wondering if he has predestine you to be a part of that family of God mentioned in verse 29, then I know a way to be certain of that:

Romans 10:9–10 ESV

⁹ because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

And finally, if you have been justified, then you can look forward with full assurance that you will one day be glorified with Christ. The God who foreknew you, the God who predestined you, the God who called you, the God who justified you, will not lose you.

There is no greater foundation we can have for the promise of verse 28 than the assurance of the sovereignty of our infinitely glorious God.

Romans 8:28 ESV

²⁸ And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.