“Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” (Romans 8:30)
There are four great Truths in this verse. They are progressive stages of our salvation. We will ask the Holy Spirit to help us understand what Paul meant here.
...Whom He did predestinate...” right away makes us think that God picked and chose who He wanted to save. Many times, I have heard people say that we were predestinate from before creation to be saved. This is true and unscriptural at the same time. God did not pick and choose who would be saved. If that were so, then why are we evangelizing? And why did God give us a free will to choose Him? The answer to this contradiction is in the previous verse. “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29) So I pose a question. Whom did He predestinate? The answer is the beginning of verse 29, whom He did foreknow. As I have stated many times, we are so time conscious on earth, it’s difficult to understand the spiritual realm in which God lives. In God’s realm, He sees the end from the beginning; past, present and future. God sees the accomplished end. To understand predestination, we have to understand this. God knows those who will believe in Him, those who will believe and trust in Jesus and those who will be saved because He sees the past, present and future and He knows the past, present and future. The best way to understand this stage of our salvation is to understand that whether we are saved or not God knew it since before creation. And those who will be saved are predestined to be called, justified and glorified.
We think of the Scripture in John. “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it you.” (John 15:16) There are many Scriptures in the Bible where Jesus is speaking directly to someone in particular in which there is a promise or a command that can apply to us. In this verse in John, Jesus is speaking to the twelve disciples He has chosen. There is such a fine line that we must be careful how we interpret what Jesus is saying and whether we can apply it to ourselves. We must look at the context. In the following Scripture Jesus is talking directly to the twelve. “Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” (John 6:70) In John 15:16, Jesus reiterates, that He has chosen them and adds that He has ordained them. Ordain has been translated for the word in Greek that means appointed them and given them a specific purpose. Today we take this whole Scripture as a promise. As believers, followers of Jesus and yes, disciples of Jesus we can take this Scripture and include ourselves in its command. Even though we are not part of the original twelve, we see what the Lord expects of His disciples. And in his writings, Paul later expands the teaching of bearing fruit. So, we see that in John 15:16, we can take the expectations Jesus had for the twelve and apply them to us because this is what Jesus expects of His chosen ones. And we are chosen for this because God saw before the beginning of creation that we would choose His merciful and loving gift of salvation.
When we understand being predestinate, being called is easier to understand. But in the space determined we cannot study being called and being justified. Let’s look at some Scriptures about being glorified. “When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4) We cannot even imagine how this will be. Jesus will return in glory to take down His unbelieving enemies on earth. That word glory in the Greek means dignity, honor, praise, worship and glorious. All who chose other gods before Him, be it themselves, money, power, position or fame will see Him and will either fear or keep resisting. “The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:41-42) It will be a fearful time for them. As for us we will appear with Him. So, we know this is after the rapture Paul spoke of in 1Thessalonians 4:15-17. We will return with Jesus in our new bodies just like Jesus. We don’t know exactly what these new bodies are like except that they are able to withstand being in God’s presence while our human bodies cannot. These bodies will be like Jesus’ body after the resurrection. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21) We will be glorified in our bodies, in our allegiance with Jesus and in our position as children of God.
Romans 8:30 is power packed with so much revelation and knowledge that we cannot truly study all of it in one sitting. I’ve heard that the Word of God is our spiritual food. Paul referred to it as milk and meat. (1Corinthians 3:1,2) We’ve just taken a little bite out of the Word. And yet, I feel like I’ve eaten a feast and need time to digest all I’ve eaten. Certainly, we need to delve in deeper to the Truths in this Scripture.
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