Sermon 25

It's God From Beginning To End

Romans 8:29-30

There are some things in life that are perplexing and paradoxical. Do you know what a paradox is? A couple of physicians? It is two things which seem to contradict each other but which are both true.

Even in teaching the Bible we discover that there are paradoxes which we cannot completely understand. For example, Who wrote the Book of Romans? Paul wrote it but God also wrote it. Every word of this book is from the mind of God. Yet every word is from Paul's heart and from his vocabulary. Was Jesus God or man? He was both. He was not a blend of God and man, not half God, half man. He was 100% God and 100% man. That's a paradox.

Here is another paradox which is related to this message. It has to do with our salvation. On one hand, I can see that I have made choices in my life and that I am a product of those choices. I chose to repent of my sins and believe the gospel. I had a free will. I could accept Christ or I could reject Christ and I chose to accept Christ.

But on the other hand, I also see that there are things about my life that I had absolutely no choice in, which have profoundly affected me. I did not choose to be born in America, where I could hear the gospel. I could just as easily have been born in the Amazon to a tribe that worshipped trees. I did not choose my parents, who raised me in a Christian home and took me to Sunday School and church. I could just as easily been born to heathen parents. These things were not by my choosing but by God's sovereignty.

It is impossible to fully reconcile my human responsibility to choose, my free will, with God's sovereign will. It is like looking at the outside of a house. You cannot see all four walls or all four corners at the same time. You can stand at one corner and see two sides, or you can stand at one side and see two corners, but you cannot see the other two sides or corners.

That's the paradox of salvation. When we look at our salvation from the standpoint of our responsibility and accountability, we understand that the Bible calls upon us to repent and believe the gospel and if a person refuses to do that, he is responsible for his unsaved condition. At the same time, when we move to the other side of the house, we see that all along God is involved in our salvation. It is a paradox. Compare that to the death of Christ. Who was responsible for the death of Christ? Was man guilty of murdering Jesus? Yes! Peter said that wicked hands took Jesus, crucified and killed him (Acts 2:23). From the standpoint of man, Jesus was murdered. But from the standpoint of God, Jesus' death was a sacrifice. Acts 2:23 also says that the death of Christ was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Jesus himself said that no man took his life from him; he laid down his life.

This paradox of salvation (human responsibility vs. sovereign grace) is the cause of a great theological debate. Centuries ago this was first called Armenianism vs. Calvinism. In the 1500's there was a theologian by the name of Jacob Hermann. The Latin word for Herman is "Armenius". Those who followed his theology became known as Armenians. During this same time a leader in the Protestant reformation by the name of John Calvin, who is credited with founding the Presbyterian Church issued the 5 Points of Calvinism. Those who followed this system of theology became known as Calvinists. Some people believe that you have to be one or the other, either a Calvinist or an Armenian. The problem is, I don't fit into either category. The reason why I don't fit into either category is because both systems teach things that are contrary to scripture. Armenians do not believe in eternal security. They believe that you can choose to no longer be a Christian. The eternal security of the blood-bought believer is one of the clearest doctrines taught in the Bible. However, Calvinists believe in limited atonement, that is, that Christ's death was intended only for those whom God has chosen and elected to be saved. That is contrary to the Bible. The Bible constantly uses the word all, any, every etc. to describe the reason for the death of Christ. He tasted death for every man. He is the propitiation for our sins but not for ours only but the sins of the whole world. God is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance. Calvinists also believe in irresistible grace (if you are one of those whom God has elected, you cannot resist God's offer of grace to you). That's not what the Bible teaches either. II Peter 2:1 makes reference to those who "deny the Lord who bought them." That is, they were part of the atonement. Christ's death was for them, yet they deny (reject) Him.

The Bible does not teach limited atonement or irresistible grace, but it does use words election, chosen, foreknowledge and predestination. So, even though I believe that man's free will is involved in his being saved, that man is responsible and accountable to God to repent and believe, if I am honest with what the Bible says, I must also acknowledge that God is involved in our being saved. This is a paradox.

The text before us uses some of those words which make us non-Calvinists nervous. In fact, from Romans 8:29 - chapter 11, there are words and ideas which make us non-Calvinists squirm. Some of those words are in 8:29-30, our text for today. The words "foreknowledge" and "predestinate" are used in these verses. If I weren't a verse by verse preacher, I could easily skip over some passages in the Bible. But if I preach the whole counsel of God, I have to deal with these verses. Read Romans 8:29-30.

Keep in mind that Paul is emphasizing just how secure our salvation is. This passage does not so much deal with how we are saved as it does with how secure we are in Christ. There is nothing here to contradict free will and one's personal responsibility to repent and believe the gospel. We were not created by God as pre-programmed robots. This is not fatalistic and deterministic theology, that leaves man as choiceless. Paul shows us that God is involved in our salvation at every step of the way, from eternity past to eternity future.

There Is Security In God's Intention For The Saved

When a Calvinist reads these two verses, he, through logic and reasoning, which is the opposite of a paradox, concludes that for God to know something in advance of it happening, means that God determined it to happen, that if an all-knowing, omniscient God knew you were going to be saved then an all-powerful, omnipotent, God willed it to happen. But when I read these two verses what I see is security. God did not force anyone to be saved but He certainly knew, foreknew, who would be saved. And those whom He foreknew would be saved, He predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Please notice that the verse does not say that God has predestinated the lost to be saved. It says that the saved have be predestinated to become like Christ.

This word, "predestinate" is found only two other verses in the Bible, both of them in Ephesians 1 (v. 5, 11). Verse 5 says that God has predetermined Jesus to be the means of becoming a child of God, of being adopted into the family of God. Verse 11 (and the end of verse 5) say that predestination is in keeping with the eternal purpose, pleasure, and plan of God.

If you are saved, God has predestined you to be like Christ. You will be like him bodily (Philippians 3:21 - Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body), and you will be like him spiritually (I John 3:2 - Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is; II Corinthians 3:18 - But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord). God is perfecting us and making us like his own firstborn! We cannot cease being saved because the ultimate purpose of God, the predetermined plan of God, is that Christians will be like Christ. That is security!

There Is Security In God's Involvement In Salvation

These verses demonstrate that God has had an interest and an involvement in an individuals salvation from eternity past to eternity future.

God Foreknew Who Would Be Saved. God is omniscient. He knows all. He knows the end from the beginning. Isaiah 46:9-10 - I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure God knows what will happen in the future. God knows what will happen before it happens. God has the foresight to see who is going to be saved. That's foreknowledge.

This word is used only two other places in scripture. In Acts 2:23, the death of Jesus was foreknown by God. It was no accident that Jesus died. God knew about it from eternity past. It was his plan. Likewise, it is no accident that a sinner is saved. God has known about it from eternity past. I Peter 1:2 tells us that.

God Predestinated Those Whom He Foreknew To Become Like Christ.

God Called Those Whom He Foreknew And Predestinated To Salvation. No one would ever be saved unless God took the initiative. And the good news is that God did and does take the initiative. He calls sinners to salvation. How? By the witness of the Scripture and by the wooing of the Spirit. No one would ever be saved without hearing the gospel, Romans 10:14,17. And no one would ever be saved with the work of the Spirit, John 6:44. We have been called to salvation by God. Thus we are "the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28), we are "called to be saints" (I Corinthians 1:2).

God Justified Those Who Responded To The Call Of The Gospel. By placing your faith in Christ, you are justified (Romans 5:1). Justification means being made just as if you had never sinned. It is a good Bible word for salvation. God does it. We cannot justify ourselves. It is by grace (3:24), it is through the blood of Christ (5:9).

God Glorifies Those Whom He Has Justified. We are going to be glorified (8:17-18). Colossians 3:4 - When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. But our text says that He has already glorified those whom He has justified. Our future glorification (receiving of a glorified body and perfected spirit) is just as secure as if it has already happened. If you could somehow lose your salvation, if you could receive salvation and then latter reject it, this verse would have to say that some of those whom God justified He glorified. But that's not what it says! What it teaches is that all who are justified will eventually be glorified. God has already determined the outcome of your salvation. That's security.

Thus, this golden chain is unbroken. Salvation begins and ends with a sovereign God. In His omniscience, He foreknew. He took the initiative by calling you through His Word and by His Spirit. He did the saving. He predetermined that those whom He would save, He would conform to the image of His Son. He glorifies all those whom He justifies.