God has too much invested in His people for Him to allow His investment to go belly up. He always gets great returns on His investment. How many mutual fund account managers can guarantee their clients an increase of "thirty fold, or sixty fold, or hundredfold" on their investments?
Back in 1992 when I joined the PC world, I was advised by a friend to join a religious chat room. This was in the Dark Ages way before Twitter and Facebook. I had no idea at first what he was talking about, but I took his suggestion, and I soon discovered that this chat room idea can be terribly addicting, time consuming and very unprofitable. I soon gave up the chat room excursion, but I did have some interesting "conversations", if you can call them that, with some people over some deep theological and doctrinal issues.
In almost every case, the talk eventually turned to what has been labeled as Calvinism vs. Arminianism. Either people were for the five points, or for some of the points, or for none of the points, and many times the back and forth volley got pretty heated among some chatters. I did find one civil person who I was able to talk to who was dead set against the five points of the doctrines of grace (TULIP), but when pressed, he admitted he did not know what to do with Romans 8:29-30, because the only possible way to understand those two verses was to accept the five points of total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement (definite, successful atonement), irresistible grace and the perseverance of the saints.
Romans 8:28 is a promise that God gives only to those whom He has called irresistibly by His sovereign grace, but the thought does not end at verse 28, when many people quit the memorization at a place where God put a comma and not a period. To elaborate and further define who these called people are, God says they are the ones that God has foreknown, has predestined, has called, has justified, and has glorified. It is not that God knows ahead of time who will choose Him, because #1, God is the subject throughout the passage; God is the actor and initiator of everything regarding our salvation, #2 it is not what God has foreknown, but WHOM God has foreknown, predestined, called, etc., and #3 "known" in Scripture often means more than just mental knowledge about something, but it means a special love toward someone.
"Adam knew his wife, and she conceived and bore a son." (Gen. 4:1, also 4:17) Adam already had a head knowledge of His wife, but here it means nothing else but an intimate relationship with his wife. "Depart from Me, I never knew you." (Matt. 7:23) God knows everything about everyone, but He does not have a special love toward everyone alike. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth." (Amos 3:2) God mentally knows all the nations on the earth, but only one, Israel in the Old Testament, had His divine favor resting upon it.
Romans 8:29-30 has been called God's unbroken chain of salvation. He loses none of His investment along the way. The same group He has foreloved, He has predestined. The same group He has predestined (determine their destiny in advance), He has called. The same group He has called, He has justified. The same group He has justified, He has glorified. The crowd does not thin out along the way. Pretenders, hypocrites, empty professors, wolves in sheep clothing, and apostates will fall away, but they never were foreknown in the first place. (1 John 2:19) God will make sure that His Son will have His bride. The true predestined, called, justified Bride of Christ will not jilt her True Love, because the True Love will make sure He will not lose His costly investment.
To add further weight to this high yield return on God's eternal investment, notice that the future aspect in this unbroken chain is mentioned in the past tense. It is not "will be glorified", but "glorified", as if it has already happened. In God's eternal decree, it has already happened. God guarantees the final result, because He got the salvation ball rolling in the first place. Heaven is a done deal for those whom God has dealt a done salvation.
I count about eleven times in v. 31-39 that the word "us" or "we" is used. Who are the "we" or "us" in this context? We are already told their identity in v.28-30. It is not no one in particular and everyone in general, but it is the specified, particular group of the foreknown, predestined, called, justified and glorified. It can mean nobody else, or else the whole train of thought breaks down into confusing nonsense. Read those last nine verses in that chapter and every time you come across the word "us" or "we", just substitute the words "foreknown, predestined, called, justified, and glorified", and it all makes perfect sense. If one still is unsure, then v.33 should remove all doubt, "Who shall lay a charge against God's ELECT?"
God is for the foreloved, predestined, called, justified and glorified. (v.31)
God spared not His Son but delivered Him up for all of the foreloved, predestined, called, justified and glorified. (v.32)
Christ died and is risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for all the foreloved, predestined, called, justified, and glorified. (v.34)
The investment picture on Wall Street can look pretty bleak at times. A commercial reminds us that some 401ks have become 201ks with our recent economic downturn. Read any mutual fund portfolio and they must inform you that past returns are not a guarantee for future returns, that these investments are not FDIC insured, and that you can lose money and your investment along the way.
Not so with God's investments. These instead are FDIC insured--Father Decreed In Christ.
If God were to lose some of His investments along the way, then how would God be any different than what this world has to offer? "And this is the Father's will which has sent Me, that of all which He has given Me (those foreloved, predestined, called, justified, glorified folks) I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." (John 6:39)
God did not take a big gamble when He sent His Son to die on the cross. It was not a roll of the celestial dice. It was a perfectly planned out salvation investment design with a guaranteed outcome.
Instead of our railing against God's investment strategy, we should gratefully and humbly praise the Manager of our salvation account "who began that good work in us and will perform and perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil. 1:6)
Now go back and read Romans 8:28 afresh with all this in mind. If God providentially decreed every aspect of your eternal salvation, don't you think He can manage all the lesser details of your life, even those things which may not make much sense now, and even those things that hurt like the dickens, so that the end result will be for your good in your life now, just like the end result of your salvation will be for your good throughout all eternity?
God will not lose out on His investment. You can bank on that.
Kept by God's investment,
Chris
