An Interesting Word Order

I was reading this morning from my favorite chapter written by the Apostle Paul - Romans 8. In my own opinion, this chapter is the greatest piece of writing to come from his pen. It is a chapter that has encouraged and blessed my heart on more than one occasion.

But I noticed something this morning that resonated with another text in the Gospel of John. Let me share Romans 8:30 - And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What I had never considered before was the particular word order of the verbs Paul used. He began with "predestined." Oh how this word has created controversy within the history of the Church. There is that centuries old debate between Calvin and Arminius. Without going into much detail - you can read as many systematic theologies as you would like - let us simply say that the word implies that God knew what was going to happen before it happened. Yes, I know it sort of blows our minds - that is because we are finite and think finitely, while God is infinite and thinks infinitely.

Now, we might expect that the second word Paul would use would be "justified", having reference to our salvation. Remember his words earlier in this epistle - having been justified by faith, we have peace with God (Romans 5:1). But Paul uses the word "call." Is it possible that our "calling" preceded our "being justified?" That thought is what brought me back to Jesus' statement recorded in John 10:27 - My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. Then Jesus proceeded to say, I give them eternal life... (Also see John 10:3-4). Salvation comes after we have listened to the "call" of God. We are "called" to be saved. And, when we follow that "call", then we receive eternal life and so are "justified."

We tend to use the phrase "make a choice for Jesus" in our evangelism. And, in a sense, there is a choice we must make. However, it is a different type of choice than choosing to buy a car, or getting tickets to the Twins game, or selecting whether to purchase that new dress. It seems that both the Apostle Paul and Jesus said that salvation is responding to an invitation and that invitation comes, not when we demand that it appear, but when God ordains its appearance. Listen to these words of Jesus - No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:44). The Apostle Paul outlined it in Romans 8 this way: predestined by God, called by God - I take this to mean to be invited to His salvation, and then justified by God - the actual act of salvation itself.

In our evangelistic emphasis, perhaps it is time that we invite people to listen for God's calling. And, when such a calling is heard, encourage them to respond by following Jesus and receiving eternal life.