The Acts of the Father (Romans 8:30)

This sermon was preached on 25/3/2010

In this chapter of his letter to the Romans, Paul is still answering the question he asked at the end of chapter 7 concerning the believer’s deliverance from the power of sin. So far, he has explained various aspects of the work of the Spirit in believers, such as mortification and the giving of assurance, that enable the believer to practically experience ongoing deliverance from indwelling sin. In addition to this form of God-given help, Paul is also reminding his readers that they should have a doctrinal perspective on their spiritual lives, particularly from the standpoint of God’s eternal purpose. In the previous verse, Paul has described the beginning and the goal of that purpose, and in this verse he gives further details of how God will accomplish his intentions.

Predestination, as we saw in the previous chapter, is the term that is used to describe the aspect of God’s purpose that concerns the destiny of the people he has chosen. Between the predestinating and the arrival at the goal, Paul mentions two divine acts that are essential in order for the glorification to occur, and they are calling and justification.

Before we consider these two acts, we should note that Paul highlights the different roles performed by each person of the Trinity. Most of his teaching so far in Romans 8 concerned the activity of the Spirit; in verses 29 and 29 he mentions acts of the Father, and later in the chapter he will refer to deeds of the Son. It is helpful for us to reflect on the different ways each divine person is involved in the salvation of every believer.

The calling of the Father
The first of the two acts is termed ‘calling’. Obviously this is a word that can be used with different meanings. For example, it is used by Paul when he refers to the different roles that God gave to him and to other believers: ‘Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours’ (1 Cor. 1:1-2). In Romans 8:29, however, Paul is not referring to the Christian lives of his readers, because he is detailing an act of the Father that occurs before the act of justification, which of itself is the beginning of the Christian life.

Theologically, this calling has been called effectual calling to distinguish it from the general call of God that is given in the gospel. The elements of effectual calling are detailed in the answers given in the Westminster Confession and Catechisms.

The Westminster Confession defines effectual calling in this way: ‘All those whom God hath predestinated unto life, and those only, He is pleased, in His appointed time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature to grace and salvation, by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them an heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and, by His almighty power, determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ: yet so, as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace.’ The Confession also has a paragraph expanding on the divines’ understanding of the work of the Spirit, a paragraph summarising the manner in which effectual calling is applied to infants and others, and a paragraph stressing the necessity of effectual calling as far as salvation is concerned.

The Larger Catechism states: ‘Effectual calling is the work of God’s almighty power and grace, whereby (out of his free and special love to his elect, and from nothing in them moving him thereunto) he doth, in his accepted time, invite and draw them to Jesus Christ, by his Word and Spirit; savingly enlightening their minds, renewing and powerfully determining their wills, so as they (although in themselves dead in sin) are hereby made willing and able freely to answer his call, and to accept and embrace the grace offered and conveyed therein.’

The Shorter Catechism gives the following answer: ‘Effectual calling is the work of God’s Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel.’

There has been a slight controversy in Reformed circles over the answer given in the Shorter Catechism. The answer states that effectual calling is a work of the Spirit whereas verses such as Romans 8:29 indicate that it is an act of the Father. There is a difference between a work and an act: a work can be gradual whereas an act is always immediate. Theologians such as John Murray disagreed with the catechism’s definition, and given Paul’s statement in Romans 8:29 Murray would seem to have a point. Yet the Westminster divines would have known very well what Paul says in Romans 8, so we need to ask why they termed it effectual calling a work of the Spirit rather than an act of the Father.

One possible reason is that they explained the doctrine from the perspective of the believer’s experience which usually involves an amount of preparation, including conviction of sin and repentance, of the sinner to close in with Christ. From the sinner’s viewpoint, the entry to salvation seems like a process. Yet it is the case that at a particular point in his or her experience, the sinner is regenerated, made alive by the Spirit. The Spirit works before regeneration (conviction of sin) and he works after regeneration (faith and repentance). The particular point of regeneration occurs simultaneously to the Father’s call. The connection between the call of the Father and the regeneration of the Spirit is that the Father, as he calls the sinner, also sends the Spirit in a life-giving capacity. As far as the sinner is concerned, he or she may not notice any difference in the degree of conviction of sin, indeed the sense of sin may be reduced, at the moment the Spirit gives life.

It is also important to note that this calling also accompanies the external call of the gospel. This is always the case as far as intelligent adults are concerned. We do not know how God regenerates young children or low-capacity adults, but with most sinners the effectual call of the Father is given through the external call of the gospel. Sometimes, we may imagine that there is a gap between the inward call and the response to the external call. There is not. There may be a gap between the inward call being given and the believer’s sense of assurance that he has been called. Yet the effectual call is not separated from the outward call.

As the person listens to the gospel, he finds himself drawn to Christ. This is the essential ingredient of the effectual call. It will be accompanied by a measure of sorrow for one’s sin, nevertheless the response to the gospel call is essentially faith in Christ and not merely repentance for our sins. In this effectual call, God the Father calls sinners to faith in his Son and simultaneously regenerates sinners and enables them to believe in Christ. This enabling is secret and is only known by the person and by others when he or she responds to the external call by faith in Christ.

Many who are brought up in Christian homes cannot say when this call took place. Thomas Watson likens God’s dealing in this manner to the way the dew falls silently on a leaf. With others, Watson says, God has to use a rough wind, by which Watson means the law to convict them of their sins. The point is we are not to dictate to God how he should call any individual person, nor are we to prefer that he had chosen another way with regard to ourselves. Effectual calling is always a personal call. It is also always a powerful call because, no matter the various means of working, it is always effective and cannot be resisted. Further, it is a permanent call, because God never reverses his choice of his people.

This is stage 2 in the process of the Father’s plan for those he foreknew. The first was to determine their destiny of being conformed to the image of Christ, the second was to call them to faith in Christ by the power of the Spirit. The third act occurs simultaneous to the second, but in the order of salvation it is dependent on the second because justification, which occurs the moment a sinner believes, cannot occur until he does believe.

The Father’s Act of Justification
Justification involves two things: the forgiveness of our sins and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us. We will briefly focus first on the Saviour’s righteousness.

As sinners we are in a twofold debt to God: (1) each is due him a life of perfect obedience and (2) each must pay the penalty for his or her sins. The first we cannot give because we are sinners and the second we cannot pay because the price is beyond our capabilities of enduring (for the penalty is eternal punishment). Yet we should not despair because Jesus has provided both.

He lived a perfect life as a child, adolescent and adult in a variety of ways: in the family, in the workplace, in the worship of God. His life intellectually, emotionally and volitionally was marked continually by love to God and his neighbour. He obeyed his Father in situations of great pleasantness and in situations of great distress (Gethsemane and Calvary). This perfect life he lived as the Representative of those God had foreknown and when each of them believes in Jesus, God the Father reckons that perfect life to their account.

He also lived this perfect life on behalf of himself in order to have a perfect life to offer up to God as a suitable substitute for sinful people. This requirement was illustrated in the Levitical law which demanded that only a flawless animal could be offered as a sacrifice. Jesus was the fulfilment of all that these sacrifices depicted: ‘knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot’ (1 Pet. 1:18-19). In dying such a death, in which he endured God’s wrath against sin, he provided the basis whereby those foreknown ones could be forgiven.

Whenever a sinner believes in Jesus, the work of Jesus is reckoned as his or hers. This means that the forgiveness they receive is free, full and final. It is free because they do not have to do anything to obtain it; it is full because it covers all his or her sins; it is final because the sinner does not need further forgiveness in order to be accepted by God. (Of course, he or she still needs to experience daily forgiveness as a child from the heavenly Father, but that is different from the forgiveness that was needed when they were in a state of condemnation.) Because Jesus has provided the life and paid the penalty the regenerated sinner never returns to the place of condemnation, even when he or she sins.

The Father’s Act of Glorification
Two unusual details have often been pointed out regarding this act. The first is that Paul omits the terms adoption and sanctification and the second is that he uses the past tense to describe the event of glorification, which is usually regarded as a future event.

One suggested explanation is that Paul uses past tenses because he is certain that each of the foreknown ones will receive all these blessings. After all, many of them have not yet been called or justified, far less glorified. He is taking them all into the picture, including any who will be called on the very day that Jesus returns.

A second suggestion is that glorification begins with the reception of the Holy Spirit at conversion. One of his titles is the Spirit of glory: ‘If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you’ (1 Pet. 4:14). In 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul writes: ‘And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.’ There obviously is a sense in which each Christian was glorified (at conversion), is being glorified (in transformation associated with sanctification), and will be glorified (made perfectly like the Saviour in body and soul).

Glorification involves the complete transformation of the body and the spirit of each redeemed sinner into the likeness of Christ. Obviously we are stepping into a realm the details of which have not been fully revealed yet. But some comments can be made.

First, glorification in its final sense involves more than resurrection from the dead. We can see this from the experience of the sinless Saviour himself. He was raised from the dead three days after he died, but he was not glorified until he entered heaven at his ascension. Regarding believers, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5 that they need more than the clothing of their current earthly bodies (which he likens to a tent); they need to be further clothed by an enhanced body from heaven (which he likens to a house). This is why it is rather pointless to ask how old a Christian will look in the eternal state. They will have advanced far beyond what their current physical abilities are.

Second, glorification includes possessing the fullness of the Spirit. This was also true of the risen Saviour. During his life of humiliation, he knew the presence of the indwelling Spirit. Yet he was also aware that he would receive the Spirit in another sense when he returned to heaven. This reception is depicted in Psalm 45, where the king receives the oil of joy more than his companions. His reception of the Spirit was also for the increased glory of his church in comparison to its spiritual state under the old covenant. In this life, even New Testament believers only have the first fruits of the Spirit, an illustration that points to them receiving his fullness when the inheritance is given (Rom. 8:23).

Third, glorification involves transformation from beholding the glory of Christ. John refers to this in 1 John 3:2: ‘Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is.’ His words indicate that, in some way, seeing Christ will cause us to be like him. Jesus also prayed for this experience to be given to his people: ’Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world’ (John 17:2). Matthew Henry comments that the vision of the glorified Christ will be both an appropriating sight and an assimilating sight.