Called According to Paul: Romans 8:27-30

This is another repost of an old post in the Called According to Paul series. I’m reposting them all, one per week (sort of), so I can link to them in the sidebar under Favorite Posts. An explanation of this series can be found here, and the already reposted pieces are here.

Not Herman RidderboHere’s this week’s text:

He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. (Romans 8:27-30 NASB)

I’ve quoted more than just the verses with the word called in them because reading all four verses helps us to understand the sense of the passage. I’d explain it something like this:

The Spirit intercedes on behalf of the saints, asking for things that are in agreement with the Father’s will for them. And the Father works in all things to bring about his will for them. This means that all circumstances bring about good results for those who love God (or the saints, or the called), fulfilling God’s will for them—a will which has as the end result their likeness to Christ’s image so that Christ will be the firstborn with many siblings who are like him. To this end God foreknew and predestined the saints, and as a result of his foreknowledge and predestination, he calls them, justifies them, and eventually glorifies them. This calling, justifying and glorifying are part of the process of working Christ’s image in them, part of the process of fulfilling God’s will for them, part of the process of working good for them, and part of the process of bringing to pass what the Spirit intercedes for on their behalf.

What we can learn about the way Paul uses the word called in these verses?

• In 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, we saw that being called is associated with our being loved by God, while in these verses, being called is associated with our loving God. Those who love God are those who are called.
  
  
• Being called is also related to being a saint or being holy. This is an idea we’ve seen in previous passages.
  
  
• Just as it was in a couple of our previous passages, the calling is grounded in God’s will or purpose, a will or purpose that has been determined beforehand (“called according to his purpose…” and “whom he predestined, He also called….”)
  
  
• And again, the calling is related to salvation, but the nature of the relationship  of calling to salvation is spelled out for us here in a way it was not in previous texts: “…these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” Calling is a result of God’s foreknowing and predestining; calling results in justification and glorification. Verses 29 and 30 aren’t called the golden chain of salvation for nothing. Each step—foreknowing, predestining, calling, justifying and glorifying—is firmly linked with the others, and each link pulls the following link along with it. Our  justification and glorification alway follows our calling. So calling, as it’s used here, is a calling with power: the power to bring about the whole of our salvation.
  
  
• We are called so we will be like Christ. This is a calling that is an appointment to be something. We’ve seen elsewhere that Paul says that God’s calling is to righteousness and holiness, or “so that you may possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14).” This is the same idea expressed differently.

What do you see that I missed? What can you see in this passage about the meaning of the word called when it is used by Paul in regards to the call of God.

Called According to Paul: 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14

This is another repost of an old post in the Called According to Paul series. I’m reposting them all, one per week, so I can link to them in the sidebar under Favorite Posts. An explanation of this series can be found here, and the already reposted pieces are here.

Not Herman Ridderbos.Here is 2 Thessalonians 2:13 and 14.

But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters, loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. He called you to this salvation through our gospel, so that you may possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (NET)

What can we learn about the way Paul uses the word call from this passage? Let’s start with verse 14—that’s where the word call is found—and work backwards from there.

• The call in this passage is to salvation, and it comes through the preaching of the gospel. In some of the earlier passages we looked at, we learned that the call to salvation is a call with divine power behind it, which implies that it is the work of the Spirit. In this passage, while it’s clear that that salvation comes through the Spirit’s work (see verse 13), Paul says that the salvation call also comes through “our gospel.” The powerful call of the Spirit to salvation works in conjunction with (or through) the preaching of the good news.
  
  
• The purpose of this call is “so that you may possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In other words, God has called particular Thessalonians to salvation so that the character and nature of the Lord Jesus Christ would be displayed in them. We saw in the last two passages (2 Timothy 1:9; Romans 1:1-7. ) that the call to salvation is a call to holiness, and this is at least a similar thought, if not the same one.
  
  
• Once again, the call is connected to God’s choice: God “chose you…for salvation” and then “called you to this salvation.” God’s choice precedes God’s call, with the call of God working out in time what the choice of God established “from the beginning.”1 We’ve seen this thought previously, for in 2 Timothy 1:9, the call to salvation is grounded in a choice made “before the ages began.”  
  
  
• And, as in Romans 1:1-7, the call is linked to God’s love, coming to “brethren loved by the Lord.”

Are you feeling like these are starting to be repetitive? That’s not a bad thing, because it shows that we’re getting down to the center of the way Paul tended to use the word call. We’ve seen the particular nuances he gave to it and the things he associated it with it over and over again. That should give us confidence in our understanding of the usual meaning Paul gives to the word call when he writes about the call of God.

What do you see that I missed? What can you see in this passage about the meaning of the word called when it is used by Paul in regards to the call of God?

1Yes, I know there’s a textual variant here. The verse either reads “as a first fruit” or “from the beginning”. For more explanation,  the NET translational notes on this verse.

Called According to Paul: Romans 1:1-7

I’ve had a very busy day and a Christian education committee meeting this evening. I planned to get the Theological Term up, but my plan ain’t happening. We’ll be making do with a repost of an old post in the Called According to Paul series.  An explanation of this series of posts can be found here. You’ll find other posts in this series here.

Not Herman Ridderbos.

In this post, we’re inspecting the introductory or greeting paragraph from Paul’s letter to the Romans. The word “called” is used three times—once referring to Paul himself, and twice referring to other believers.

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Verse 1

In the first verse, Paul says that he has been called to be an apostle. He said the same thing in 1 Corinthians 1, one of the passages examined previously. Used like this, the word call carries the meaning of a summons or appointment, a significance made stronger by the phrase that follows: “set apart for the gospel of God.” This call is an appointment to a particular office or role that sets Paul apart among the followers of Christ.

Verse 6

Paul says here that the Gentile people to whom God has called him in order for him to “bring about the obedience of faith” (or to bring to a transforming faith in the gospel) includes the specific believers in Rome that he is writing this letter to. They are the ones “who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.” This calling is a summons into the group of people who belongs to Christ. (In I Corinthians 1:9 the idea was similar.)

Verse 7

There’s a close association between being loved by God and being called by him. This calling springs from God’s love for particular people. It is because they are loved by God that they are called to be saints. This a calling to something: They are called to be saints (or to be holy). And this is yet another call that sets people apart.

Once again, I’ll ask what you see that I missed. What can you see in this passage about the meaning of the word called when it is used by Paul in regards to the call of God?