And we know that God causes all things to work together
for good to those who love God, to those who are called according
to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He
would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰ and these
whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He
also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for
us, who is against us? ³² He who did not spare His own
Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with
Him freely give us all things?

The promise in verse 28 that all things work together for good
for those who love God and are called according to his purpose is
so sweeping and so unbelievable and so weighty that Paul knows he
must put a very deep foundation under it to hold it up and to help
us believe it, when sometimes almost everything in our lives seems
to say the opposite. In fact, all the rest of chapter eight can be
seen as Paul’s effort to do just that. Everything is an
effort to help us understand and believe that all things will work
for good for those who love God and are called according to his
purpose.

A Message for Believers and Unbelievers

This is a message for believers. And like every message for
believers, it is a message for unbelievers. For believers it aims
to put unshakeable rock under your faith, and for unbelievers it
aims to win you into that faith because of how much rock there is
under it. For believers it aims where I ended last Sunday –
to motivate you with truth to take risks in the cause of evangelism
and missions and racial justice and all the perils of loving
people. For unbelievers it aims to enlist you in that same cause
because you were made for it, and following Christ in the path of
risky love is the only life that will satisfy depths of your soul
and honor your Maker.

So I hope you will listen to this third message on Romans 8:28,
and if you have missed the other two, you may go back and listen to
them on tape or on-line.

Review of Parts One and Two

Two weeks ago I spoke on the words, "to those who love God."
"All things work together for good to those who love God . . ." If
you don’t love God, you can’t bank on this promise. And
we talked about what it means to love God.

Last week we focused on the promise itself – "all things
work together for good" – ALL THINGS, not just some things.
Not just the easy things or the good things, but the hard things
and the bad things. Malcolm Muggeridge, the Christian journalist
who died in 1990 spoke for almost all serious, Biblical Christians,
who have lived long enough to wake up from the dream-world of
painlessness, when he said,

Contrary to what might be expected, I look back on
experiences that at the time seemed especially desolating and
painful, with particular satisfaction. Indeed, I can say with
complete truthfulness that everything I have learned in my
seventy-five years in this world, everything that has truly
enhanced and enlightened my existence, has been through affliction
and not through happiness, whether pursued or attained. In other
words, if it ever were to be possible to eliminate affliction from
our earthly existence by means of some drug or other medical mumbo
jumbo . . . the result would not be to make life delectable, but to
make it too banal or trivial to be endurable. This of course is
what the cross [of Christ] signifies, and it is the cross more than
anything else, that has called me inexorably to Christ.
(Homemade, July, 1990)

So I pray that as we look at the third part of this text you
will see in it the cross of Christ and be drawn to him and to his
fellowship of suffering in the cause of saving sinners.

Called According to His Purpose

The third part of the text is the phrase: "to those who are
called according to His purpose." "All things work together for
good to those who love God and to those who are called
according to his purpose." So there are two things that must
be true of us if this promise is to be ours. It does not come true
for everybody. It comes true for those who love God and are called
according to God’s purpose.

These are not two groups of people. This is one group of people
with two things true of them: 1) they love God; 2) they are called
according to his purpose. Why does Paul mention these two things
instead of just one of them? Here is my suggestion.

If he had only said that all things work together for good for
those who love God, it would have sounded like the promise rests on
pretty flimsy ground. My love for God is a flimsy ground for this
promise. It is an experience in my heart. And my heart is
notoriously fickle and variable and weak. To make such a massive
promise rest on such a fragile human experience alone would be to
make a mountain rest on a marshmallow.

So Paul says, this promise does not just rest on your
marshmallow heart, it rests on God’s calling and purpose.
"All things work together for good . . . for those who are called
according to his purpose." Here we have God’s work,
not my experience. God’s call, not my consciousness.
This is solid. This is divine. This is powerful and deep and
strong.

But what if Paul had only said, "All things work together for
good for those who are called"? Then we would want to ask, How do I
know if I am called? We would want some sign that God has in fact
done this great and powerful and wonderful thing: he has called
me.

So Paul gives both. He tells us the objective, solid, divine
work of God that makes the promise unshakeable: he called us
according to his purpose. And he tells us what happened in
us when God called us so that we can know it has happened: we love
God and all that he is for us in Jesus Christ. So we have two
things that must be true of us if this promise is to be ours. Our
love is subjective, and God’s call is objective. Our love is
our act, and God’s call is his act. Our love is an effect,
and God’s love is the cause.

In other words, the call of God according to his purpose is part
of the massive, deep, unshakeable foundation Paul is laying in
Romans 8 that keeps this promise from falling and makes it
believable. You are not the key here. God is
the key here. His work will keep this promise true for you, or it
won’t be true for you. Because your love is too fragile and
uncertain. But God’s call is not fragile and not uncertain.
And it not only brought your love into being but will keep it in
being so that the promise of Romans 8:28 will be true for you
forever.

So let’s see what the Bible has to say about this calling
that guarantees our enjoyment of this promise forever? I think we
can sum up the most important things about this call under two
questions: 1) What happens when a person is called? 2) What is the
effect of this call long term?

1. What Happens When a Person Is Called?

God calls a person to Christ by bringing them into contact with
the gospel of Jesus Christ and then making their dead hearts alive
so that they hear the gospel as irresistibly true and
beautiful.

God’s almighty call and my call on his behalf are not
identical. When I preach, I call you all to hear the gospel as true
and beautiful and embrace Christ as your treasure. But at that
moment not all are "called" the way Paul is using the word in this
verse. My call is general. God’s call, in and
through mine, is specific. My call offers hope.
God’s call, in and through mine, creates hope. My
call offers life. God’s call, in and through mine,
gives life. My call commands that you love God.
God’s call, in and through mine, grants what it
commands.

Where can we see this in the Bible? Several places (1
Corinthians 1:22-24; 2 Timothy 1:9; etc.). But let’s stay
here. The next two verses are the most important. Verse 29 starts
with the ground or reason we can be sure that all things work
together for good for those who are called. It’s because
"(29) those whom He foreknew, He also predestined
to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be
the firstborn among many brethren; (30) and these whom He
predestined, He also called; and these whom He
called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He
also glorified."

All of that is written to give us the reason for why all things
work together for good for the called. What does he say?
He says we can be sure all works for good for the called because
the called have been predestined for this! Therefore it is
sure. Specifically he says in verse 29 they are predestined to be
like Jesus and to have him as a great older brother, and (at the
end of verse 30) to be "glorified." In other words, predestination
stands
behind your call and makes it sure. What God predestines
happens. That’s what it means to be God.

This is why Paul added the words in verse 28, "according to his
purpose" – "All things work together for good . . .
for those who are called according to God’s
purpose." God’s call does not come without a purpose.
And God’s purpose is expressed in the word, "predestined." He
predestined us to be like Jesus and to have Jesus as our strong and
loving older brother. And then he carried his predestination
through and made it happen to us by calling us. Verse 30a:
"Those whom he predestined he called."

And not only that, read on. In verse 30 he says, ". . . and
these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He
justified, He also glorified." In other words, all the called are
justified, and all the justified are glorified. This is because
when God predestines something to happen, it happens. And God
predestined our final Christ-likeness and our being with Christ,
and that means our glory. And so he undertakes to bring to pass
what he predestined by calling us and then justifying us and then
glorifying us.

What do we learn from this? We learn that God’s
calling here is his sovereign action to bring us from the
spiritual deadness of unbelief and hostility to God to the
spiritual life of faith in Christ and love to God. We know this
because all the called are justified. But only
believers are justified. And so God’s calling
secures the faith that it commands. It is effectual. It guarantees
the effect of faith and love. God’s call is his omnipotent,
creative word, like the word Jesus spoke to Lazarus when he was
dead: "Lazarus, come forth" (John 11:43). The call created the life
and Lazarus came out.

We can confirm with a key text on God’s effectual call in
1 Corinthians 1:22-24, "Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for
wisdom; ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a
stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, [in other words,
everyone is hearing the preaching and being called in the general
sense, but that is not what "call" means here or in Romans
8:28) ²⁴ but to those who are the called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."

Some from the Jews and some from the Gentiles are "called" when
Paul preaches. And what happens when they are is that they see
Christ crucified not longer as foolishness and no longer as a
stumbling block but as divine power and wisdom. That’s what I
meant earlier when I said that God’s call comes through the
gospel and makes dead, hostile hearts alive so that they hear the
gospel of Christ crucified and risen as irresistibly true and
beautiful.

All things work together for good for you if this has happened
to you. And nothing can stop everything from working for good for
you because, just as God took the initiative to call you
omnipotently to himself from the dead so that you love him, so he
will take the initiative to keep you spiritually alive and finally
glorified in the presence of Christ. Everything will work for you
to get you there.

That leads to the last question.

2. What Is the Long-Term Effect of This Call?

The effect is absolute eternal security for all who are called.
You see it in verse 30: "These whom He predestined, He also
called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and
these whom He justified, He also glorified." All the called are
justified, and all the justified will be glorified. There are no
dropouts. This is why all things work together for good for those
who are called according to God’s purpose. His purpose is to
save us utterly by his own almighty grace of initiative and
power.

But someone may say, with fear, but what if I give up? What if I
stop believing? What if my love for God grows cold and dies? The
answer is: it will not happen for those who are called. And the
reason is NOT that it doesn’t matter if your faith fails and
your love dies. The reason is that the God who calls, keeps. The
God who, by his sovereign grace, called you (see Galatians 1:6, 15;
2 Timothy 1:9), will, by that same sovereign grace, keep you
believing and keep you loving.

Listen to the link between God’s calling and keeping.

Jude 1:1, "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother
of James, To those who are called, loved by God the Father and
kept for Jesus Christ."

1 Corinthians 1:8, "[God] will also confirm you to the
end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹
God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord."

In other words, God will confirm you to the end because he
called you. That is what God’s faithfulness means. God called
you according to his purpose to save you, and God always does what
he purposes to do. That is his faithfulness.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, "Now may the God of peace
himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul
and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. ²⁴ He who calls you is faithful; he
will surely do it."

God is faithful. Therefore, if he called you, he will keep
you.

So now we have begun to see the magnitude and magnificence of
the foundation underneath the promise of Romans 8:28. The
foundation is not merely your love for God. It is the eternal
purpose of God, the predestination of God, the effectual calling of
God, the justification of God, and the sure glorification of
God.

Everything will surely work together for your good, not because
you have the moral power to keep loving God, but because the one
who called you is faithful and will work in you to keep you loving
God.

Therefore I end where I did last week: Go take some risks in the
cause of evangelism and missions and justice and love. Because no
matter what the cost, it will all work together for your good. He
who called you is faithful. He will do it.

End

See the following texts for additional insight on the
call of God and the purpose of God.

Uses of the word "call"

2 Timothy 1:9, "[God] has saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all
eternity."

Romans 9:11, "Though the twins were not yet born and
had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according
to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him
who calls."

Romans 9:23-26, "And He did so to make known the riches
of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand
for glory, ²⁴ even us, whom He also called, not from
among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. ²⁵ As He
says also in Hosea, ‘I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY
PEOPLE, "MY PEOPLE," AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, "BELOVED."
²⁶ AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID
TO THEM, "YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE," THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS
OF THE LIVING GOD."’"

1 Corinthians 7:18, 21, "Was any man called when he was
already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone
been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised. . . .
Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you
are able also to become free, rather do that.

1 Thessalonians 2:12, ". . . so that you would walk in
a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and
glory."

1 Timothy 6:12, "Fight the good fight of faith; take
hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the
good confession in the presence of many witnesses."

Uses of the word "purpose"

Romans 9:11, "for though the twins were not yet born
and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's
purpose according to His choice would stand, not because
of works but because of Him who calls."

Ephesians 1:11, "Also we have obtained an inheritance,
having been predestined according to His purpose who works
all things after the counsel of His will."

Ephesians 3:11, "This was in accordance with the
eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our
Lord."

2 Timothy 1:9, "[God] has saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus
from all eternity."