The Believer’s Security

Predestination and Protection
(Romans 8:28-39)

The conclusion of Romans 8 is perhaps the most triumphant passage in the Bible. In it Paul affirms that Christian believers can be completely confident about their present life and future destiny, because God is sovereign — in control of all circumstances and every person. In this message on God’s sovereignty, preached at Greyfriars’ Classical Service on 22 July 2007, Rob Yule clarifies many common misunderstandings of predestination and shows its practical relevance for human life.

The most triumphant verses in the Bible begin and end this section of Romans (verses 28, 38-39). They affirm our unshakeable security as Christian believers. But they mustn’t be lifted out of context: they rest on verses 29-37, which speak of God’s sovereignty.

Many people object to the concept of predestination. But without divine predestination, there is no basis for the Christian’s protection. The security of the believer rests on the sovereignty of God. Only because God is sovereign do all things work together ‘for the good of those who love God’ (8:28). Only because God is sovereign will ‘nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (8:39).

God’s sovereignty: everything is for us (8:28-30)

Verses 28-30 are about God’s sovereignty. It is because God watches over us that everything is for us. God’s sovereignty is over things and over people.

1. Providence: God’s control of things

God exercises providential care to make all events and all circumstances work out for the best for those who love him.

The commonest objection to God’s sovereignty is that it overrides human freedom. But God’s providence takes account of human freedom. God is like a master chess player, who can overrule every move and make even people’s moves against him fulfil his purpose. He makes even human wrath to praise him (Psalm 76:10, AV).

How do we know this? We know it because of the death of Jesus on the cross — alluded to by Paul in 8:32: God ‘did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.’ The cross is the supreme demonstration that God can make bad things work for the good of those who love him. God can take the worst event — the crucifixion of his Son — and turn it into the best — the triumph of the resurrection and the gift of eternal life — without violating the freewill and character of the human beings involved. In Jesus’ crucifixion, God works out his saving purpose through Caiaphas’s scheming, Judas’s treachery, Pilate’s cowardice, and the soldiers’ brutality. Because God’s purpose prevails even through human prejudice and passion, we can truly call the day Jesus died ‘Good Friday’, not ‘Bad Friday’ or ‘Bloody Friday’.

We see this in the prepositions Paul uses. They comprise a carefully formulated theodicy or vindication of God’s providence in face of evil:

1. ‘In all things.’ Not everything is good, or for our good. Some events are tragic, some are downright evil. There is no resignation in Christian faith — no pretending things are better than they are. God works for good even in bad things.

2. ‘For the good’ — not necessarily for the health, wealth, or happiness of a person. Later Paul mentions the kind of hardships that a Christian will face: ‘trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword’ (8:35). There is no romanticism in Christian faith. The error of prosperity teaching (or, as I prefer to call it, ‘immunity teaching’) is that a Christian will be immune from life’s hardships and always experience health and material prosperity. Such teaching reflects the misplaced values of our materialistic consumer culture rather than what the Bible says about suffering in general and suffering for our faith in particular. God makes everything work for our good: that means, for our moral good rather than our material good; for our holiness, not necessarily for our happiness.

3. ‘Of those who love him.’ God’s purpose doesn’t work indiscriminately in people, regardless of their conduct or attitude to him. God’s purpose only works benevolently in people who ‘love him’, who trust in his purpose and cooperate with his will. In contrast to Islam there is no fatalism in Christian faith. This is a profoundly liberating view of life. Because God is in control, life can become a great adventure. It ceases to be a tragedy and becomes a triumph.

2. Predestination: God’s control of people

I remember many debates about predestination when I was a student. What we need to remember is that our Judaeo-Christian faith affirms that there is only one God. That means, there is only one sovereign power in the entire universe. ‘To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ God asks the prophet Isaiah. ‘Lift up you eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these?’ (Isaiah 40:25). God alone is the creator of everything that exists. All causality is traceable back to him. This includes our freedom. God created us in his own image (Genesis 1:26-27) — so God is even the cause and creator of our creativity and freedom.

Historically, there have been two different interpretations of God’s ‘foreknowledge’ (8:29):

• The Arminian view (named after the 16th century Dutch theologian Jacob Arminius) is that God foresaw those who would believe in him. But this reduces God’s sovereignty, making our faith the cause of God’s foreknowledge.

• The Calvinist view (named after the 16th century Swiss Reformer John Calvin) is that God’s foreknowledge gives rise to faith — making our faith the consequence of God’s choice.

The biblical view is that knowledge consists in personal relationship. The statement that Adam ‘knew’ his wife Eve (Genesis 4:1), is a reference to personal and sexual intimacy. ‘To foreknow’ is to decide beforehand to have a relationship with someone. The emphasis is not on predetermining actions but on choosing a person.

We can see this in Jeremiah’s description of his call by God to the prophetic ministry: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’ (Jeremiah 1:5). Above all we see it in Jesus’ own statement about predestination: ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit — fruit that will last.’ (John 15:16).

Before the date of our conversion, before our parents first prayed for us, before Jesus died on the cross, before the human race was created, before time began, in eternity, God chose you and me.

The believer’s security: nothing is against us (8:31-39)

The Bible’s teaching about predestination is primarily for our comfort, not for controversy. So Paul in verses 31-39 moves on to consider the believer’s security. In life, two kinds of things come against us:

1. Accusation: what people say about us (8: 32-34)

Paul uses the picture of a law court, and alludes to Isaiah 50:8-9: ‘Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?’ With Jesus by our side as our counsel for the defence, the prosecution cannot sustain a charge against us. As Paul has already said, ‘There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’ (8:1). Jesus rescues us from condemnation — by his death, resurrection, exaltation and intercession.

2. Opposition: what people do to us (8:35-36)

Because of what Jesus has been through we don’t need to fear persecution. ‘In’ all these things we are more than conquerors. We aren’t promised immunity from difficulties, but victory in them. Because of Jesus’ victory on the cross and through his resurrection, we believers won’t be defeated by the hatred of people (8:36-37), nor divided from the love of God (8:38-39). ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (8:35).

This is a remarkable testimony coming from Paul, who had experienced many of these very hardships in his last twenty years of itinerant ministry labours evangelising the east Roman Empire. He had experienced beatings, stonings, imprisonment, opposition, death threats, shipwreck, hunger, exhaustion, loneliness, and anxiety (2 Corinthians 11:23-28, 12:10). Yet he could affirm that none of these things, nothing in heaven or hades, neither hell nor high water, could separate him from God’s love revealed in Christ Jesus his Lord:

‘No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (8:37-39)

So this glorious chapter of the Bible, which began with no condemnation, ends with no separation. We believers are secure eternally, because our God is sovereign over all situations and all people.

Rob Yule, 22 July 2007
© 2007, Greyfriars Presbyterian Church