The Golden Chain

SPROUL JR.: Once we are justified, can we lose our salvation? Not if the golden chain is true, because all the justified will be glorified so that if you're saved now, you are saved forever and ever. And that's the golden chain. And indeed, it's not a rusty chain. It's a chain made of the precious truth of the gospel. That golden chain is true, and that's what we'll be considering today on Renewing Your Mind.

Happy Reformation Day, as today marks the 507th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany. The hammering of that nail echoes loudly around the world today from pulpits, on street corners, over the airwaves, and via the Internet as the Lord builds His church, saving sinners by faith alone because of the finished work of Christ alone. If you have your Bible, open it to Romans 8. Here's Dr. Sproul.

Sproul, Jr. This whole chapter is filled with encouragement to those who are in Jesus Christ, and the acme of that encouragement came in 828, where we know, Paul says, that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, and those who love the Lord are those who are the called according to His purpose. And so this concept, this idea that God calls effectually certain people according to His good pleasure and according to His purpose introduces this golden chain that follows from it. Now again, in terms of the theological significance of the golden chain, let me introduce this text by giving some background.

In the seventeenth century in Holland, a group of theologians rose up out of the Dutch Reformed church to protest against historic Reformation theology, and with Arminius and his friends, they entered into what was called a remonstration, that is a protest against some of the doctrines of sixteenth-century Calvinism, and five doctrines in particularly felt the weight of their theological criticism. And as a result of that controversy, these five issues became known as the five points of Calvinism and that were considered under the rubric of the acrostic tulip, that flower which is the fairest flower in God's garden, and that acrostic is spelled T-U-L-I-P. Now what we're going to be concerned about this evening is the U in tulip, the doctrine of unconditional election. And I think it's important that we understand the parameters of this controversy as we look at the text of Scripture itself. So having said that by way of introduction, let's go and look now again closely at the text. Immediately after Paul says that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, he then begins to introduce this idea of foreknowledge where verse 29 says, For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Now notice that the first aspect, the first link in the golden chain that is mentioned here by the Apostle is the link of foreknowledge. He begins there, Those whom He foreknew, did He also predestinate. Now again, understand that this idea of predestination is not a concept or a word invented by Calvin or Luther or Augustine. It is a biblical word. It is a word that we find here in Romans.

It is a word that Paul uses widely in Ephesians, for example. The idea of election is a concept that is found throughout the whole of Scripture. And so the question is that if you're going to be biblical, it's not are you going to have a doctrine of predestination or not have a doctrine of predestination, since predestination is a biblical doctrine and a biblical concept. And if we are Christians submissive to the Word of God, then we obviously have to wrestle with this and have to understand some kind of doctrine of predestination. Now the question is, what is the correct understanding of this doctrine of predestination? If we are debating predestination and we are asking, what is the basis of God's foreordination or predestination? And somebody says, well, the basis of it is God's prior knowledge of our human behavior. That's the only reason it makes sense for foreknowledge to come first. We respond, wait a minute, God cannot predestine anybody from all eternity that He doesn't first know from all eternity. God does not predestine a nameless, faceless group of elect people.

Obviously, if He predestines a people from the foundation of the world, He has to know what people it is that He's predestinating. Now also we have to look at the word foreknowledge in the Greek language. The word here that is used by the Apostle Paul that is translated by the word foreknowledge is the word proegno, proegno. It comes from a form of the noun gnosis, which is the Greek word for knowledge. Now this word for knowledge that is used in the New Testament Greek is used two distinctive ways, and it's very important for us to understand this distinction with respect to the word foreknowledge in the Greek. The first has to do with cognition, intellectual cognition or intellectual awareness. That's the fundamental reference point to the Greek word gnosis or knowledge, a cognitive awareness of some reality.

But in addition to that cognition aspect that is associated with gnosis, there is also a deeper kind of knowledge, a deeper dimension of knowledge that we might talk about in terms of personal or spiritual or a redemptive knowledge. For example, in the Old Testament you will read repeatedly statements like this, Adam knew his wife and she conceived. Or we read that Abraham knew his wife and she conceived. Now the word there in the Septuagint is the same word for knowledge that we're talking about here.

And what does that mean? That Adam is introduced to Eve, and he said, Madam, I'm Adam. She says, nice to meet you, and voila, she's with child. He knows who she is. He read her dossier. That's cognitive knowledge, but it takes more than cognitive knowledge for a baby to be conceived in the mother's womb. It takes a much more intimate, personal form and type of knowledge. And when the Bible speaks about a man knowing his wife in that way, it's not because they're using euphemisms to avoid a description of a sexual relationship.

It's using the full measure of this word knowledge, or the verb form to know. And so if we can clear up the apparent discrepancy between Paul's teaching in Romans and his teaching in 1 Corinthians, we would say it this way, that general revelation gives to all men a cognitive knowledge of God that is inescapable, and though we seek to destroy it and don't want to have it in our minds, we cannot eliminate it all together. And so therefore we are left without excuse on the judgment day. We can never say with impunity that we didn't know that God was there, because we do have that gnosis as a result of revelation. Yet at the same time, by nature, the gnosis that we receive never rises to the level of that spiritual apprehension and personal knowledge of God in a redemptive way. Personal, redemptive, spiritual knowledge of God only comes as a result of the work of the Holy Ghost within our hearts and in our minds.

Now why labor this when we're talking about this particular text here? Well, because it is the root of the term that starts the golden chain, those whom He pro-egno, those whom He knew had the gnosis of, prior knowledge of. Is it merely God's cognitive awareness of people from all eternity, or is there more content to this knowledge that is called foreknowledge here in the text? I think that the full import of this word includes within it not mere cognition in the mind of God, but that knowledge that God has of those whom He appoints to be conformed to the image of His Son is a knowledge that is redemptive, that is spiritual, and that is affective, not effective but affective. So that we could equally reasonably translate this text by saying, those whom He foreloved, those whom He knew in this personal, intimate, redemptive sense from all eternity, did He predestinate.

Now so much for the word foreknowledge. Let's look now at the word predestinate. The word that is used here in the Greek text is another word with the prefix pro. It's pro orizo, and that means, according to the Greek lexicons, a sovereign determination in which a fixed or definite limit is sovereignly decreed. So that when it speaks of predestination, as the English word suggests, there is a destiny for certain people that God from the foundation of the world has established.

He has fixed it. He has determined it according to His sovereign good pleasure, according to the good pleasure of His will. And nowhere ever in Scripture is a foreseen conditional response by human beings ever given as the reason or the rationale for this eternal decree by which God fixes for all eternity those whom He ordains, chooses, and determines to be redeemed. Now notice that the language that the Apostle uses here with respect to the goal of predestination is not the language immediately of redemption itself or salvation. Paul doesn't say, those whom He foreknew that He also predestined unto salvation. The concept is certainly there, but that's not the language that He uses here. I want you to see carefully what the language is that He uses.

Let's look at it. Whom He foreknew He also predestined. Predestined to what?

Here's the predestined to, first of all. What are people predestined to? They are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son so that the purpose of predestination is that the elect may be brought by God's grace into conformity, into a relationship, a form of relationship with the Son of God. Keep in mind that when Paul speaks about predestination, when the New Testament speaks about predestination, the focus of predestination is always, always and everywhere related to Christ.

Let me say that again. The predestination is never discussed in the abstract, but predestination is related to our relationship with Christ. Those whom God foreknew He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Now that's what predestination is to. But now we have to ask the question, not the direction of predestination, but the why of predestination. Why does God from all eternity predestinate certain people to be in conformity to Jesus?

Well, let's look what He says here. That… Now this is a subjunctive clause which indicates purpose. Here the apostle is setting forth very clearly the purpose of predestination, that He, that is Christ, might be the first born among many brethren. So that it's for Christ's sake that there is predestination. It is that Christ may see the travail of His soul and be satisfied. I mean this pernicious view that is just pervasive in evangelicalism in the world today has the idea that God sends His Son into the world and offers His Son as a Savior to as many as will receive Him.

And then God stays out of the way. He makes the offer, and He allows in the final analysis for the destiny of individuals to be determined by the individual who makes the choice to either come to Christ or not come to Christ with the theoretical possibility that Jesus would die in vain, that Christ gives a potential atonement and offers a potential redemption for a potential number of people. That is not the God of Scripture. The God of Scripture is a God who from all eternity has a sovereign purpose of salvation in mind, and He sovereignly sends His Son into the world, and He sends His Son into the world to affect the atonement for His people, that they may be adopted into the family of God, which we've been reading here in Romans 8 about that adoption, that we are in Christ. We're heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus because God has sovereignly decreed that people would come to Christ. And the only reason I can find anywhere in Scripture as to why anybody's saved is for Christ's sake. We who have come to Christ come because we are the gifts of love that the Father gives to His own Son. Elsewhere the apostle says that God chooses people according to the good pleasure of His will. Now notice that Paul describes the pleasure of God's will by calling it the good pleasure of His will. Whatever He pleases to do, whatever He wills to do is always flowing out of His character, which is altogether righteous.

But let's continue with the golden chain. Moreover, the apostle says, whom He predestined, these He also called. Whom He called, these He also justified. Whom He justified, He also glorified.

Now it's called the golden chain because several links are linked together here. First is foreknowledge, then is predestination, then is calling, then is justification, and then is glorification. Now in theology, we talk about what's called the ordo salutis.

That's Latin for simply the order of salvation. The order that He gives us here in Romans 8 begins with foreknowledge, then moves to predestination, and now He says, Moreover, those who are predestined, these same ones, are also called. And those who are called, these same ones, are also justified.

And those who are justified, these same ones, the apostle is saying, are glorified. Now what is tacit here in the text, and I don't know of any sober commentator who would deny this, is the concept of all. All whom God foreknows in the way He's speaking of here are predestined. And all of those who are in the category of the predestined are also in the category of the called. Now let's stop right there, and let's look at this from a prescient perspective, from an Arminian or Melanchthonian viewpoint, where they would say, well, of course, all who God foreknew in advance would respond. And obviously, to respond to the gospel, you'd have to hear the gospel. So those whom He predestinates, He also calls, because the basis of His predestination is found once again in His knowledge of their answer to the call.

Right? Now I want to make sure you get this, because here is where this text that is so often a favorite text for Arminians and semi-Pelagians of all sorts and stripes, is where this text stands that distortion on its ear. Why do I say that? Because in the golden chain, all whom God knows He predestines. That is, all the elect that He knows, He predestines. And all whom He predestines, He calls.

You get that? He doesn't just call some of the ones who are predestined. He calls all of the ones who are predestined. Now what kind of calling is Paul speaking about here? The general call, the outward call that some say yes to and some say no to?

Well, let's just see. Those who are called, these He justifies, all of these. So what Paul is saying is that all who are called in whatever way he's talking about calling here are justified. Now not all who are called outwardly are justified, because many who are called outwardly say no to the call. But all who are called inwardly, all who are called effectually come to faith by the power of the Holy Spirit and are justified. So we see in the golden chain a doctrine of predestination that is as far away as possible from the Arminian view, because Paul here says, that those whom He foreknew, these same people He predestines, and all that He predestines He calls, and all whom He calls He justifies. And all who are in the category of the justified, these also He glorifies.

Remember the context. Are we safe when we are saved? Once we are justified, can we lose our salvation? Not if the golden chain is true, because all the justified will be glorified.

So that if you're saved now, you are saved forever and ever. And that's the golden chain. And indeed, it's not a rusty chain. It's a chain made of the precious truth of the gospel. After declaring the golden chain in all of its links, Paul asks a question of his readers in verse 31. What then shall we say to these things?

What should our response be? Well, what's your response? What's your response to the biblical doctrine of predestination? What's the conclusion the Apostle comes to?

Let me read it for you. If God is for us, who can be against us? One of the great, wonderful Latin phrases in all of church history is the phrase deus pro nobius, God for us. What should our response be to the golden chain? What should the response be, the fact that we have been rooted and grounded in the eternal purposes of God?

The response is this. If God is for us, who can be against us? Well, let me answer that question for the Apostle Paul. I'll tell you who can be against us. Everybody in the world can be against us. There are plenty of people who are against us, and Paul is not suggesting that if God is for us, nobody in this world will ever stand in opposition to us.

But the import of this declaration is simple. What Paul is saying is all of the opposition that rises up against us by human beings is meaningless in the final analysis because all of the opposition of this world cannot overthrow the glory that God has laid up for His saints from the foundation of the world. And when God is with us from all eternity, if God is for us in His decree of election, if God is for us in calling us effectually, if God is for us by justifying us by His grace, if God is for us by glorifying every one of His people, whose opposition can mean anything in light of that? This is the amazing thing that people kick and scream against the doctrine of sovereign grace and of sovereign election when it's one of the most comforting doctrines that you'll ever learn from sacred Scripture. If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Right back now the doctrine comes to the person and work of Christ.

Who can be against us? As Psalm 46 tells us, God is our refuge and strength. And as Martin Luther would sing, He is a mighty fortress. You're listening to the Reformation Day edition of Renewing Your Mind.

I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham. We've spent a couple of weeks considering the history and theology of the Reformation and the Gospel of God that was rediscovered in the 16th century. And this week, we're in the Book of Romans, a significant letter in the history of the church. And you have the opportunity to secure a copy of a new year-long devotional from Ligonier Ministries, R.C. Sproul's The Power of the Gospel.

It's a year in Romans based on Dr. Sproul's sermons in Romans with additional application with every reading. This is a brand new resource that will begin shipping in a few weeks. So reserve your hardcover copy today and be one of the first to receive it when you give a gift of any amount at 800-435-4343 or when you give online at renewingyourmind.org. Your support today will help the proclamation of the gospel to the nations through Renewing Your Mind and Ligonier Ministries, so please give generously at renewingyourmind.org or when you use the link in the podcast show notes.

Here's a preview of tomorrow's episode. When Augustine heard those children's words, his eyes fell upon a large Bible that was chained and he let the Bible just open up anywhere, and his eyes fell upon the printed page. And here's what he read, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust. And like a lightning bolt, the Word of God pierced his heart, and this was the text used by Almighty God to convert the soul of Augustine. That'll be tomorrow here on Renewing Your Mind.