Called According to His Purpose

not according to our works

And we know
that all things work together for good
to those who love God,
to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28

Intro 

There is a lot of good truth in this passage. But we could miss it if we are sidetracked by a debate over what it means to be ‘the called according to God’s purpose.’ Our strategy to avoid the debate and uncover the good truth will be to examine this verse phrase by phrase.

All things

All things doesn’t mean all objects. Paul wasn’t saying that every imaginable created object, such as potatoes, cigarettes, and brussel sprouts are for good. Some of these things may be for good, but that isn’t the point Paul is making here. 

In this passage, all things means all events and circumstances. Paul was saying that all events and circumstances are for good. Even bad events that happened because of bad choices. 

For example, the first event Abram experienced after he arrived in Canaan was a famine. This does not classify as a good event, but a bad event. However, God intended to use this bad event for good in Abram. With the famine, God could develop faith in Abram so that he would learn to trust God in difficult times. However, Abram chose to flee the famine and go to Egypt. But as he traveled, he became afraid that someone would kill him for his beautiful wife. Instead of trusting God to protect him, he told people she was his sister. As a result, Pharaoh took her to be his wife. 

Losing his wife was a bad event that came because of his bad choices. 

But then God intervened and compelled Pharaoh to give back Abram’s wife. Abram went back to Canaan with his wife and there built an altar to the Lord. He built the altar because he found he could trust God. So God used this series of bad events for the good of developing faith in Abram. 

Abram’s experience illustrates what Paul was saying. All events and circumstances, even bad ones, are used to produce good in those who love God.

For good

All things work together for good is not a promise that all things will turn out well in the end. We do know that all things will turn out well when we arrive in eternity, but Paul was not speaking of that happy event. He was telling us that God uses all things to produce a particular good in those who love God. And verse 29 points to what the good is.

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Romans 8:29

Notice God’s final destination for believers: they will become like the Lord Jesus. Based on the rule of context, being made like Christ is the good that verse 28 has in view.

In verse 28, Paul was saying that God uses all things to transform the personalities of His people into the likeness of His Son.

Love God

It’s a sad reality that not all believers reach the same level of Christ-likeness in their old age. But it isn’t that God fails to perform His work. It’s that not all believers have loved the Lord equally. Paul stated all things work together for good, but specifically to those who love God. That implies the more we love God, the more He can produce the likeness of His Son in us.

We love Him because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19

According to 1 John, our love for God doesn’t develop through a focused effort to stir up our emotions. Our love towards God develops when we see how He first loved us.

I grew up in a Christian home, so I always knew God loved me. But it wasn’t until the guilt of my sin overcame me that I saw how God truly loved me. Because it was while I felt filthy rotten in my sin that I saw God’s love for me in that He sent His Son to die for my sin. 

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Our clearest view of God’s love is in the context of our sin. And when we see God loves us even as corrupt sinners, we cannot help but respond in love towards Him.

People who truly love God are those who remember that the sin in their hearts is utter corruption, and that God loves them even as sinners. For people who love God like this, God is able to use all things to produce the good of Christ-likeness in them. 

The called

Called does not mean called to be saved. The call of salvation is an invitation-type call, such as what we see in verse 29. This Greek word in verse 28 is more about taking up a lifestyle or vocation. Paul was talking about people who were called to a particular kind life.

At first glance, we might assume that the calling is a life of personally striving to become like Christ. But Paul was not saying that we must use every event to produce Christ-likeness in ourselves. He was telling us that God is producing Christ-likeness in certain ones whom He has called to a certain lifestyle. 

Paul referenced the lifestyle in the beginning of Romans where he addressed his epistle to those who are in Rome, called to be saints (Romans 1:3). This calling to be saints is surely the calling Paul was referring to in Romans 8:28.

Now, ‘saints’ simply means, ‘holy ones’. So we could say that God called them to be holy people. 

This may sound like a life of striving to become Christ-like, but there is an important factor to holiness that we should not overlook. It is probably worth our time to pause and refresh our memories with the example God’s call to Israel to be holy. 

Thus, God’s calling to be saints is a calling to live life near Him, in His presence, even though we still sin. Not everyone wants to live near God. But for those who do, God works all things for good. 

His purpose

Called according to His purpose does not mean believers are made holy based on God’s decree from eternity past. It means they did not achieve their calling to be saints through their efforts. In other words, ‘called to be saints according to His purpose’ means these people were brought into a holy life by God’s purpose, not by their efforts. Look at how Paul used this phrase in 2 Timothy 1.

God, who 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 given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel

As believers, we understand that our salvation is not according to our works. But we might not realize that our holy calling is also not according to our works. As with our salvation, we don’t become holy by doing good works. 

Israel’s experience parallels ours. We are made holy, not according to our efforts, but according to the purpose of God which was carried out by Jesus’ obedience.

God sent Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus fulfilled the purpose of God by bearing our sins in His body on the tree, abolishing death and bringing to us life and immortality.

There are many people who try to achieve holiness, that is, nearness to God, through their works. But we cannot draw close to God by our works, for our righteousness is as filthy rags. God brings us near through Jesus’ work. So to those who recognize they are holy by God’s purpose, which was fulfilled by Jesus’ obedience, for them God works all things for good. 

Summary

We know that God uses all events and circumstances for the good of transforming into the likeness of Christ those who love God (who see that God loved them first, even in their sin) and who embraced the calling to be holy saints by God’s purpose which was fulfilled in Christ who abolished death and brought us into the eternal favor of God.

Conclusion

God works all things for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. 

How do we love God? John said that we love God because He first loved us. He demonstrated His love when we were still sinners, in that He sent this Son to die for us. Such love surely will produce love in us. But sometimes, especially when we are doing well, we sort of forget that we are sinners. When we forget we are sinners, we don’t clearly see God’s love. 

To love God, we will need to learn to always acknowledge that sin is in our hearts. Yet God loves us. As we thus see the richness of His love towards us, we will love Him, and He will work all things for good.

How can we be called according to His purpose? God wants us to live life near Him. Do we want to live near Him, or would we prefer independence? To live near God is to live life knowing that we are accepted and approved of by Him, and to live without fear of judgment and knowing we are in His everlasting favor. We cannot achieve these things by our good works. We can only obtain God’s acceptance and approval when we recognize that we have been brought near by His purpose which was accomplished by the Lord Jesus on the cross when He abolished our death and brought us into God’s eternal favor. As we rest in being brought near through the Lord’s obedience, our Father will work all things for good.

Text to describe what they will be looking at.

Romans 9-11

The series of articles covering Romans 9-11.

Romans 8:29

Whom He foreknew, He also predestined…

Chose you for Salvation

taken upon Himself your deliverance

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you,
brethren beloved by the Lord,
because God from the beginning chose you for salvation
through
sanctification by the Spirit
and belief in the truth

2 Thessalonians 2:13

Paul and Silas were in Thessalonica for only three weeks before persecution arose and compelled them to leave. They left behind several new believers who subsequently became the targets of persecution. Paul and Silas were greatly concerned about how these babes in Christ fared until Timothy returned with an excellent report. Their joy upon hearing the good news saturated the two Thessalonian epistles.

 The verse above is an example of Paul’s enthusiasm over their steadfastness and growth. But we can easily confuse his message if we don’t clearly understand the terms he used.

Salvation

Probably the key term to understand is ‘salvation.’ In these days, we use ‘salvation’ almost exclusively regarding the event of being born again and justified from sins. But the New Testament used the word with a slightly broader scope. Consider Peter’s message to born-again believers in the opening verses of his epistle.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1 Peter 1:3-5

So although Scripture regularly used ‘salvation’ to refer to the one-time event of justification, it also used the term in reference to our final deliverance from the corruptive effects of sin in us.

Initially, my colleague, Graham, and I assumed Paul was referring to the justification aspect of salvation in our passage above. But we came to understand that he had something else in mind for three reasons. 

The first is the grammatical construction of the verse. Paul wrote that their salvation came through the sanctification of the Spirit. Sanctification here means ‘being made holy.’ We saw he could not mean their justification (salvation) came through a process of being made holy (sanctification), because in Romans he wrote that we are justified by faith, not through a process of sanctification. So his use of ‘salvation’ here does not fit with the aspect of justification.

Secondly, we noticed that other passages which speak of salvation coming through something are arguably speaking of another aspect of salvation. When Paul was writing to the Thessalonians in the first epistle, he wrote about salvation that would come through the Lord Jesus.

But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 1 Thessalonians 5:8-10 

Since they were already saved, he clearly was referring to a future aspect of salvation, namely, living together with the Lord. This aspect of their salvation would come through the Lord Jesus Christ, for He was the key to this hope by virtue of the fact that He would return for them. 

Paul provides another example of salvation which comes through something in his letter to Timothy.

But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3:13-15

Here, the context indicates that ‘salvation’ referred to deliverance from deceptions that come from evil men. This deliverance (salvation) would come through faith in Christ Jesus, and the faith would come from the wisdom of the Scriptures.

Given that these other passages which speak of salvation through something were speaking of an aspect other than justification, we concluded that 2 Thessalonians 2:13 was doing likewise. 

Our last reason for taking this view is the thought flow in the context. In the verses preceding our passage, Paul wrote of the last days of this age.

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

He was speaking of a delusion that will come upon all those who will not receive and believe the truth. He stated that the reason they would not receive the truth would be because they enjoyed unrighteousness. In other words, their love of unrighteousness would make them unavoidably susceptible to the coming delusion. 

It seems reasonable to understand ‘salvation’ in our verse as speaking of deliverance from that delusion and resulting condemnation. Then, the thought flow would proceed as follows. 

First, Paul wrote of the coming delusion. Then he gave thanks for the Thessalonian believers because God would deliver them from the delusion through sanctification (making them holy) by the Spirit, and belief in the truth. Whereas the unbelievers would fall for the delusion because they loved their sin, God would deliver the Thessalonians from the delusion through the purifying work of the Spirit. Paul closed the thought flow with an exhortation to hold fast to what they had been taught.

Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle. 2 Thessalonians 2:15

This appears a perfectly natural instruction in the context’s thought flow if we take ‘salvation’ with the meaning as we have presented. When we took ‘salvation’ to mean justification, we found this instruction in verse 15 disrupted the flow of thought because the ‘therefore’ made little sense in the context of justification. 

Chose

Although this discussion about salvation may seem to quibble about semantics, the results have a significant impact on the meaning and blessing of the passage. Especially when you add the meaning of the Greek word for ‘chose’ (G0138). 

G0138 (chose) evidently had a relatively narrow range of meaning. It meant a specific type of choice of taking for oneself in a way that involved personal commitment. We can see a clear example from the life of Moses.

By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward. Hebrews 11:24-26

Moses made a choice to take upon himself the identity of the people of God instead of Pharaoh’s royal household. This was a choice that involved great personal commitment on his part and had a lasting impact on his life.

Another good example for our consideration is the first time this Greek word was used in the Greek Old Testament. Besides showing the meaning, this passage also shows that G0138 is not necessarily unilateral since both parties made a choice. 

Today you have chosen God to be your god and to walk in his ways and to keep his statutes and his judgments and to obey his voice. Today also the Lord has chosen you to be his exceptional people, as he said, to keep all his commandments, and that you be high above all nations, as he has made you renowned and a boast and glorified, that you be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he spoke. Deuteronomy 26:17-19 (New English Translation of the Septuagint)

Israel made a choice of commitment that YHWH would be their God, and God made the same kind of choice for Israel to be His people. Notice how God’s choice of Israel had the goal of making the Israelites holy, which is the same theme as His choice of the Thessalonians.

One final element of G0138 involves the emotional side. 1 Samuel 1:19 used the word to describe Jonathon’s great delight in David. It is evident that his personal commitment to David was coupled with a feeling of endearment (see here for further discussion on G0138).

With these word meanings in our minds, imagine what Paul’s statement meant to the Thessalonians. Paul was telling them that God had made a personal commitment to them. God would take it upon Himself to ensure they would not fall prey to the delusion that would swallow up the unrighteous and lead to their condemnation. And He would accomplish this through a process of making them holy in the Spirit. All they had to do was to grow in their belief in the wonderful truth in His Word. It was a wonderful statement of assurance in God’s love and commitment towards them.

Beginning

Before we leave this verse, it might be good to consider ‘beginning’ (G0746). This word had a broad range of meaning, being used to describe both the absolute beginning (John 1:1), and the relative beginning of the relevant object. 

As far as we could see, nothing in the immediate context indicates whether Paul was thinking of the beginning of time or some other beginning. However, in the first epistle, Paul wrote of his gratitude to God in a similar fashion to our 2 Thessalonians passage.

For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe. 1 Thessalonians 2:13

In this verse, Paul was referring to the time when they first received the word of God. It seems reasonable that he was referencing the same time period when he gave thanks in the 2 Thessalonians 2:13 passage. That means he was saying that God, from the beginning when the Thessalonians first heard and received the gospel, preemptively chose them for deliverance from the delusion through being made holy.

This interpretation fits well within the historical context of their salvation. Paul and Silas were forced to abandon the new believers before they could fully fortify them against the deceptions of unrighteousness. But the apostles soon saw that God, from the day these people were saved, preemptively committed Himself to delivering these dear believers through the process of sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. Paul and Silas recognized that the endurance of the Thessalonian believers was not due to their help, but to God’s loving commitment to them. 

God’s commitment to His people was and is a marvelous truth full of assurance and security in His faithfulness to us. May we be encouraged in the loving-kindness of our God.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17