Romans 8:28-30 The Everlasting Security of the Believer (part 1)

Everlasting Security

I was saved (justification); I am being saved (sanctification), I will be saved (glorification). The Word of God promises: I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you [plural] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6 HCSB). Everyone the Father gives Me will come to Me . . . This is the will of Him who sent Me: that I should lose none of those He has given Me but should raise them up on the last day (John 6:37, 39 HCSB). My sheep are hearing My voice, I am knowing them, and they are following Me. I give them everlasting life, and they will never perish—ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand (John 10:27-29). For anyone to undo everlasting salvation, they would have to have more power than God the Father, which is impossible. The Bible says: All the inhabitants of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does what He wants with the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth. There is no one who can hold back His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ (Dan 4:35 HCSB) Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You, for You gave Him authority over all flesh; so, He may give everlasting life to all You have given Him (John 17:1-2). [Eternal = something or someone that has no beginning and no end. Everlasting = something or someone that had a beginning but does not have an ending—forever and ever.] Once you receive everlasting life, it lasts forever.

I.                  The believer victoriously awaits the future glory that he/she will receive at the moment of glorification vs. 24-39

D.     He/she continuously awaits glorification with a certain assurance concerning his/her past, present, and future salvation vs. 28

1. God is working behind the scenes to complete His will in the lives of His children (the selected or called ones = those who love God)

2. God is using the diverse circumstances to bring about something good in the future for His people. Unbelievers are not addressed here

3. God has the power and ability to direct His world for His people, who are described as those who love God, which are those who were called by God to salvation as part of His worldwide plan of redemption

E.      He/she waits continuously, knowing that God is working out His purposes in this world, especially His purpose and will for their salvation vs. 28-30

1. God is the subject of vs. 28-30, and all believers are the objects of the 5 verbs. Thus, we can have complete confidence in God that He will complete in us what He started and not change His mind (Mal 3:6)

2. God is infinite and eternal and outside of time. He exists in the past, present, and future all at once, and His omniscience makes it impossible for Him to save someone in our past and then un-save them in the future because of human weakness  

3. This is God’s gold-plated steel chain of salvation with five links

a)     ‘Foreknew’ proginosko to love beforehand, to select beforehand, to foreordain (in some other contexts it can be to know a thing in advance, but not here)

b)     ‘Predestined’ prooridzo decide upon beforehand, predetermine destiny, a predetermined plan that each believer would be like Jesus in character, displaying God’s glory as children of God and the preeminence of Jesus

c)      ‘Called’ kaleo God’s invitation to salvation or summons to discipleship

d)     ‘Justified’ dikaioo to be acquitted before God, declared righteous in God’s courtroom in heaven

e)     ‘Glorified’ doxadzo to receive a glorified body and cleansed soul that are rejoined at the resurrection of the righteousness at the return of Jesus Christ

4. These are past tense events in the plan of God and in the believer’s life except the last one (glorified). Paul uses five past tense verbs to describe all five events. Why would Paul speak of a future event as if it had already occurred (glorification)? Because it is so certain to happen, once the process of salvation starts for a person, it is guaranteed to be completed by the God who cannot lie (Titus 1:2) [doxadzo is a gnomic aorist active third person singular verb].

 

See David Steele and Curtis Thomas, 1963, Romans: An Interpretive Outline, Phillipsburg, NJ: p. 70.