Think Wink.

Last week I talked about the link between the calling and the justification of Romans 8:30. I argued based on the certainty that the Greek communicates that the call spoken of in that verse guarantees the person called will come to saving faith, faith that justifies, in Christ. In other words, every person who God called will be justified. God’s call in this verse is not resisted but always and willingly responded to in faith. Today I want to focus on the link, or at least one aspect of it, between those predestined and those called.

The Greek reads like this, houn de proorisen, toutoun kai ekalesn; in English it is literally “who and [he] predestined, these also [he] called.” Now not much further needs to be stated about what Paul means by ekalesen, invited or called. It is simply that call of God that produces, effects, saving faith in a person whenever it is issued/extended to him or to her. Nor do I need to say much about proorizo, Predestination, predetermine. But suffice it to say, it is the predetermining of God to conform those whom he foreknew into the image of Jesus Christ, his perfectly righteous and holy Son, to glory of Christ and thus to himself.

However, let me define briefly what I mean by “foreknowledge” as it appears in Romans 8:29. The term is made up of two Greek words compounded together. The first is the Greek preposition pro which means before. The second term is the Greek verb ginosko which means I know. This knowing here in Romans 8:29 is of a person “Those whom he foreknew.” The question is, “How did God ‘know’ these people?” Galatians 4:9 uses this word to describe a relationship between man and God, “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God.” Jesus uses it in Matthew 7:23, “And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” In the Old Testament LXX we see an even deeper meaning to the relationship meaning of this term. In Genesis 4:1 Moses records, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain.” Here we see that it is an intimate knowledge equated to the sexual relationship of a husband and wife. We can also see in Amos 3:2, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.” It is this last usage that Paul has in mind when he says of Israel in Romans 11:2, “God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew [proginosko].” Thus we see that proginosko refers to an intimate relationship that God has with a person. Paul in Romans 8:29 limits this group so that it is not a universal group. “For those whom he foreknew.” It is a select group, an elect group of people that foreknows. It is these people that he predestines to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Now what I want us to see is that those who God predestined he extended this faith producing, soul saving, call that justifies the sinner. “Who and [he] predestined, these also [he] called.” The verbs here are aorist verbs so Paul is saying that those predestined are called with that call that is not rejected. The pronouns are the same here as in the later part of the verse. Hous is a relative pronoun referring back to those whom God foreknew and toutoun is a demonstrative pointing to the predestined being called.

Now what this means is that only those predestined are being called. There is no one outside of the predestined group receiving the call. There is no one outside of the foreknown group that is not predestined by God. God does not extend his saving call to everyone indiscriminately, but only to those who he elected unconditionally. The rest are simply uncalled. Thus not all are saved because God has not saved all. God’s sovereign purpose is the driving force behind salvation (Romans 8:28, “those called according to his purpose;” cf. 2 Timothy 1:9), not man’s self-determining will–which in ancient Judaism it was a point of pride to believe in self-determination until later Pharisaical theology developed. But in God’s good purpose, he sovereignly limits those who will receive this effectually saving call.

Thus I conclude that the middle point in the famous acrostic TULIP, namely Limited Atonement, is the biblical teaching on why not all men are saved. Not all are saved because God does not savingly call all men. Go back to 1 Corinthians 1:23-24 where Paul writes, “We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Notice that Paul preaches Christ to both Jew and Greek alike. With in that group of Jew and Greeks is a people that God will effectually call to himself, thus they will see that the cross is the power of God and wisdom of God. The effects of salvation is limited to a select group of people. But as Paul, in this verse, preached to all men, so to must I who preach the gospel preach to all men. I am not the one who decides the elect but God does. God calls me to preach to all men, “to become all things to all men in order that I might save a few.” Thus I seek out all men and women, not just some men and women. As Jesus said, “many are invited but few are chosen.”

Related posts:

Prayer

Tolkien and Predestination

Him That Pisseth on Calvinism