The word “called” is the next link in the great golden chain of salvation by which God reaches down from eternity into time to save sinners. The point of this word, the third link, is that those whom God calls not only hear His call but actually respond to it by turning around and by believing on Jesus Christ or committing their lives to Him. Remember there are two types of calls; external, general, which is itself ineffective for salvation, and a call that is internal, specific, and regenerating.

The first call is an open invitation to all persons to repent of their sin and turn to Jesus. This call flows from every true Christian pulpit and from who bear witness to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The difficulty with this external, universal, and (in itself) ineffectual call is that if people are left to themselves, no one ever actually responds to it. People hear the gospel and may even understand it up to a point. But God who issues the invitation is undesirable to them, and so they turn away. Jesus declared, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…” (John 6:44). But this is where the second kind of call comes in, the kind that is actually spoken of in Romans 8:30. Unlike the first call, which is external, universal, and (in itself) ineffective, this second call is internal, specific, and entirely effective. In other words, it effectively saves those – and all those – to whom it is spoken. It is a call that unites us to Jesus Christ, bringing us into fellowship with Him, and sets before us a holy life in which we will be sure to walk if we have truly been called.

We have stressed that the necessity of the special, or internal, call of the individual to salvation by God is important. However, we need to remember that the effectual or specific call comes through the general call. That is, it is through the preaching the Word by God’s evangelists and ministers and through the telling of the Good News of the gospel by Christians everywhere that God calls sinners. He does not call everyone we Christians call. Our call does not regenerate. God alone is the author of the new birth. All must be born “from above.” Nevertheless, the way God does, that is through the sowing of the seed of His Word, which is entrusted to us.

We have been studying a long-range plan, in fact, the longest-range plan that has ever been devised or could be devised. It’s a plan that has its origins in eternity past and will find its consummation in eternity future. It is all-embracing. Of course, I’m speaking of the plan of God outlined for us in Romans 8:28-30. The plan begins with God’s foreknowledge and predestination, expresses itself in time in the calling of individuals to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, includes justification, and ends in glorification, when these foreknown and predestined persons are made entirely like Jesus. We come now to the last two steps of the plan.

The first term we need to look at is justification. Justification is the opposite of condemnation. When a person is in a wrong relationship to the law and is condemned or pronounced guilty by the judge, condemnation does not make the person guilty. The person is only declared to be so. In the same way, in justification a person is declared by God to be in a right relationship to His law, but not made righteous. In a human court a person can be declared righteous or “innocent” on the basis of his or her own righteousness. But in God’s court, since we humans have no righteousness of our own and are therefore not innocent, believers are declared righteous on the ground of Christ’s atonement, in other words, justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Glorification, the fifth and final term of Romans 8:29-30, is a term we met as early as Romans 5:2 (which anticipates Rom. 8:28-30), where Paul spoke of Christians as rejoicing “in the hope of the glory of God.” What does Romans 5:2 mean? It means that we know that one day we will be glorified and that we rejoice in this certainty. That is, we know that we will be like Jesus. We will not become God, of course. But we will become like Him in His communicable attributes: love, joy, mercy, wisdom, faithfulness, grace, goodness, self-control and other such things (see Gal. 5:22-23). In that day sin will no longer trouble us, and we will enjoy the complete fullness and eternal favor of God’s presence.

The teaching of Romans 6:2 and 11 explains how it is that we have “died to sin.” You cannot go back; there is no place for you to go but forward. The eternal purpose of God in saving us, unfolded in the five great acts of God described in Romans 8:29-30, makes that plain. But just as it is important to say that we cannot go back, so is it also important to say that we are going forward. God’s foreknowledge of us is followed by His predestination of us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. His predestination of us to be made like Jesus is followed by our being called to saving faith. Our calling is followed by our Justification. Our justification is followed by our glorification. Therefore, it is as certain that one day we will be with Jesus, and be completely like Jesus, as it is that God exists and that His long-range plan is realistic, effective, and unchangeable. This is God’s great plan. So let’s get on with our part in it and be thankful that His grace has drawn us in!

Romans 8:30 Reflection Questions:

Can you recall your personal external and internal calls?

What is the effect and means of our justification?

Paul’s mention of glorification in Romans 8:30 is that it is in the past tense, so when do you think glorification takes place?