Salvation Ordained and Accomplished

“Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” (Romans 8:30)

One thing we learn from this verse is that the salvation of sinners is by God’s sovereign order and decree. If sinners are saved, it is because God the Father decreed their salvation having named them in the Book of Life of the Lamb before the foundation of the world and Who was slain since the foundation of the world, Revelation 13:8. God the Father declared them justified when the LORD Jesus came in the flesh and paid their sin debt when He laid down His life for them. By the blood and righteousness of the LORD Jesus imputed to their account upon the completion of His work on the cross, it was then and there that the Father declared them justified before Him, Romans 5:9-10. When Christ died, rose again and ascended on high, every sinner whose name was written on His breastplate as the Great High Priest was glorified with Him, Ephesians 2:5-6.

This is exactly the order of salvation set forth by the apostle Paul in Romans 8:30. While many use this verse to teach the sinner’s justification before the foundation of the world or after the Spirit’s work of regeneration, a careful study of the context shows it to be accomplished at the cross for three reasons:

1. The word used for ‘called’ [kalew] is not referring here to the Spiritual calling of the Spirit of God to Christ but rather to the naming of sinners in election according to God’s predestinating grace. Matthew 1:21-25 use the word in this way: “thou shalt CALL His name Jesus.” Therefore, the proper order of the sinner’s justification (legal acquittal from all guilt and declared righteous) follows his predestination and election (naming in the Lamb’s Book of Life). When was this accomplished?

2. The context of Romans 8:30 shows that the sinner’s full, complete and final justification before God was only accomplished when Christ died at Calvary. Verses 31-34 make that plain: “He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all...” (v. 32); “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth!” (v. 33) How? When? See v. 34: “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”

3. We know that those whom God the Father predestined and called [named by election] He not only justified when Christ died but also glorified them as well. The redeemed indeed await their final glorification and deliverance from the presence of sin and yet, it may just as truly be stated that they are now glorified, being seated with Christ their Representative Who was glorified by the Father when He rose and ascended on high as mentioned in John 13:31 and 17:10. What a glorious order of salvation, giving God and His Christ all the glory!