Romans 8:30Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

See Rom 8:29. “And those whom He called, these He also justified.” He justified them by the laver of regeneration. “And those whom He justified, these He also glorified.” He glorified them by grace, through adoption.

God knows beforehand those who are worthy of calling, and then predestines them. Thus foreknowledge comes first, then predestination.

By predestination understand the unchangeable good will of God.

Thus He knew beforehand that Paul was worthy of the evangelical calling, and in this way He predestined him.

That is, He determined unchangeably, and therefore resolved to call him.

Those whom He knows beforehand to be worthy of calling He makes conformed to the image of His Son.

What the Only-begotten was by nature, they became by grace, themselves becoming sons of God.

He is the firstborn among many brethren according to the divine economy, for according to His Divinity He is the Only-begotten.

Having assumed flesh, He united it wholly and entirely to His whole nature. He became our firstfruits, sanctifying in Himself our condemned nature.

Therefore He is rightly firstborn, and we are called His brethren.

Jesus Christ said plainly, “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28). Behold, He called all to Himself, and no one will remain without a share in grace. For by saying “all,” He excludes no one whatever. Those whom He knew beforehand as they would be, and whom He predestined to share in the good things to come, these, as it is said, He also called. Thus they tasted justification through faith in Him, having already become unreceptive to sin.

When Paul says, “Whom He predestined, these He also called,” one may ask whether all who are called are justified. But elsewhere we read, “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Mt 22:14). Since the chosen are, of course, called, it becomes clear that they are not justified without a calling. Yet not all are called to justification, but those who are called according to His purpose, as the Apostle says above (see Rom 8:28).

Therefore God chose believers, but in order that they might believe, not because they already believed.

“Those whom He predestined,” that is, the Gentiles, “these He called” through the promise of the Gospel. “These He also justified” through faith and baptism. “Those whom He justified, these He also glorified” through the gifts of the Spirit.

Those in whom He foreknew a firm purpose He predestined from the beginning. Having predestined them, He called them.

Then, having called them, He justified them by baptism. Having justified them, He glorified them by naming them sons and granting them the grace of the All-Holy Spirit.

But let no one assert that the cause of this is foreknowledge, for foreknowledge did not make them such.

Rather, God foresaw the future from afar, as God.

If I look at a spirited horse that has taken the bit in its teeth and thrown off its rider, I may say that, approaching a precipice, it will cast itself into it.

Then, if this happens according to my word, I did not throw the horse into the abyss.

I merely foretold that this would happen, using the horse’s reckless boldness as a sign.

Verses 29-30. In these two verses the Apostle sets forth the very important teaching on the predestination of men to salvation.

Having arranged our salvation from eternity, God does not only now offer us the means to appropriate by faith the merits of Jesus Christ.

Nor does He only now call us to salvation and save us according to the measure of our faith.

Being all-knowing and almighty, just as before the ages He predestined His Son to be redemption for fallen men, so before the ages He chose some for salvation and prepared others for perdition.

“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”

He did not simply predestine, says the Apostle, but predestined because He foresaw.

The holy Apostle Paul clearly teaches that God’s predestination is based on foreknowledge.

He testifies: “Whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also glorified” (Rom 8:29-30).

He did not simply predestine, says the Apostle, but predestined because He foresaw.

Those whose merits He foresaw, He predestined. Or, as blessed Jerome says, “those whom God knew would be conformed to His Son in life, He predestined to be conformed to Him in glory itself.”

The predestination of some by God to eternal blessedness and of others to eternal condemnation is conditional.

It is based on foreknowledge of whether they will or will not make use of grace.

Blessed Theodoret writes: "Those in whom He foreknew a steadfast disposition, He predestined from the beginning. Having predestined them, He called them. Then, having called them, He justified them by Baptism. Having justified them, He glorified them, naming them sons and granting them the grace of the All-Holy Spirit."

The form of salvation for all was first predestined in the Lord Jesus Christ. He accomplished it and established the whole economy of salvation. Having established all this, He sent the holy Apostles to call to salvation those who desire salvation.

The Wise One depicts this thus: "Wisdom built herself a house and set up seven pillars. She slaughtered her sacrifices, mixed her wine in her cup, and prepared her table. She sent out her servants, calling with lofty proclamation to the cup" (cf. Prov 9:1-3).

The Savior portrays the same thing in the parable of the wedding banquet arranged by a king for his son. Having prepared everything, he sent his servants to call people to the wedding: "Say: behold, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding" (cf. Mt 22:4).

"Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature" (cf. Mk 16:15). The Apostles went and called. They called everyone. But why is it said: "Whom He predestined, these He also called"?

The predestined are the same as the chosen. Yet not all who are called are chosen. The Lord said this, and the event showed it. All are called. But not all who are called follow the calling. Not all become called in the full sense.

One should call that man called who has already received the Gospel and believed. Yet even among these, not all are chosen. Not all are predestined to conformity with the Son in righteousness and glory. For many do not remain faithful to the calling. Either they err in faith, or in life they limp on both sides (cf. 3 Kgs 18:21). But the chosen and predestined remain faithful to the end.

How, then, does the Apostle say that those whom God predestined, He also called? We now are all called, for we are in the Church of God, in the house of our God. But which of us, looking at his sins, can say with certainty that he belongs to the number of the predestined chosen?

Therefore one must distinguish between those called and those called. Some of them are predestined to salvation and glory. Others are not predestined. If this distinction must be made, then a distinction must also be made between calling and calling.

The chosen and predestined pass through the act of calling in a special way, though the word of calling sounds alike to all. Beginning here, this distinction among the chosen continues afterward in all the following acts on the path of salvation, or of drawing near to God. It brings them to the blessed end.

Precisely wherein this difference consists cannot be defined. Yet it is not in grace alone, which accompanies the word of calling. It is also in the disposition and receptivity of those called, which are matters of their free will.

Ambrosiaster writes: "To call means to help one who has resolved to believe, so that he may believe, or to move toward faith one of whom it was foreknown that he would obey. These foreknown ones remain faithful to the end and are under God's good pleasure.

"As for the others, whom God did not foreknow, He has no care for them, because He did not foreknow that they would remain pleasing to Him to the end. Though they believe and are received for a time into the company of the chosen, since they appear good and justice requires that each receive his due, they do not remain to the end and will not enter into glory. We see this in Judas, Saul, and others."

When the chosen are called, these others go with them and receive everything the others receive. But they remain within this enclosure for a longer or shorter time and then depart. Such were those who followed the Lord, but after He set forth the teaching on Communion, left Him and no longer walked with Him (see Jn 6:71).

It is very troubling to see oneself among the called and think: What if I happened by chance to fall among the called, and do not at all belong to the called who are predestined? It is easiest for us to reach this thought, since we are born among the called and, when we come to self-awareness, already see ourselves called.

Were we called because we were predestined? The answer is this: if you are faithful to Christ's calling, then know that you have no grounds to exclude yourself from the number of the predestined. Remain faithful and bless God, who called you to conformity with His Son without your own doing.

If you remain so to the end, do not doubt that the boundless mercy of God will meet you there also. If you fall, do not fall into despair. Hasten through repentance to stand again in the rank from which you fell, like Peter.

If you fall many times, rise again, believing that when you rise you again enter the company of those called according to predestination. Only unrepentant sinners and hardened unbelievers can be excluded from this company. Even this is not final. The thief, already on the cross, in the final moments of life, was seized and taken by the Son of God into paradise.

We cannot say that we do not belong to the number of the predestined. Yet we cannot say the opposite either. But since the path to it is open to all and proclaimed to all, and since we are called to walk it, let us walk in the assurance that if we reach the end, we will enter what stands at that end.

God predestined as He foresaw. It is the same with regard to us. God foresaw what we would desire and toward what we would strive. In accordance with this He made His decree concerning us. Therefore the whole matter lies in our disposition. Guard a good disposition, and you will fall among the predestined chosen.

Concerning the kingdom of God, the Lord said that tireless zealots, who do not spare themselves and compel themselves to every good, seize it, harpadzousin (cf. Mt 11:12), as though snatching it by force from God's hands. Strain every effort and zeal, and you will win election for yourself.

Yet this very thing means that you are among the predestined chosen. For one who is not chosen will not be zealous.

"And whom He called, these He also justified." Calling is completed, on God's side, by the proclamation of the Gospel with the great gracious power that accompanies this word. On man's side, it is completed by receiving the good tidings, by sincerely believing in them, and by full readiness to live according to their directions.

When this is accomplished in the spirit of a man, then on God's side he is clothed in justification. This justification consists in the forgiveness of all former unrighteousness, and in the preparation or equipping of the man for every righteousness thereafter. This happens through the communication to him of the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, which regenerates, enlightens, and strengthens.

This is accomplished in holy Baptism. Chrysostom says: "He justified by the washing of regeneration." Theophylact says: "He justified, freeing them from sins and making them righteous through the washing of regeneration."

The Apostle writes to those already called and justified. They bore within themselves the justifying power in Christ Jesus and felt it. It is borne and felt even now by all who walk rightly after the Lord.

"And whom He justified, these He also glorified." How did He glorify them, when Christians were despised and persecuted everywhere? The present state was not glorious, and the future, though exceedingly glorious, had not yet come. How, then, did He glorify them?

By an inner glorification, in which the foundation for the future also lies. Inner glorification does not mean that everything within speaks glory to the justified. It means that through justification a most glorious state is built within, wondrous to the angels and pleasing to God.

Because of their complete submission to the guidance of the Spirit's grace, this grace penetrates all their parts and powers. It makes them what they were predestined to be, that is, conformed to the image of the incarnate Son of God, sons of God by grace.

Is this not glorious? What else can be compared with this glory? Chrysostom says: "He glorified them by grace, by adoption." Theophylact says the same: "By counting them worthy of adoption and giving them the other gifts."

The Apostle writes that God foreknew and predestined, then called, justified, and glorified. Everything is God. What, then, about us? If everything is God, should we simply fold our hands? Whomever He wishes to act upon in this way, He will surely bring to the blessed end. And when He does not wish it, struggle as much as you like, nothing will come of it.

But the one who begins to struggle and keeps struggling is precisely the one desired by God. When it is said that God both calls and justifies, this does not mean that calling and justification cost those called and justified nothing. God draws them. They express the desire to follow and resolve to do so. Then they run, fighting against the opposing things before them and overcoming them with God's help.

This course is strenuous, and this path is a path of blood. It is accomplished through the cooperation of God's gracious power and human free will. In this matter the Apostle depicts only one side, the all-working action of God. He does this in order later to conclude: if this is so, what have we to fear?

He began speaking of this with the purpose of setting forth firm foundations of hope. This required him to dwell primarily on what comes from God in the ordering of our salvation. What comes from us, each person will add for himself in considering this.

Yet since someone may turn the thought of our participation into perplexity and stumble over it, some of our interpreters come to such people with help. Since the beginning of all the divine all-working depicted here is foreknowledge, for having foreknown, He predestined, and then called, justified, and glorified these foreknown and predestined ones, blessed Theodoret dwells on it.

He does so in order to say that foreknowledge, and therefore all the divine actions that follow, do not take away the freedom of those foreknown. He writes: "Let no one assert that the cause of this, that is, of calling, justification, and glorification, is foreknowledge. For foreknowledge did not make them such. Rather, God foresaw from afar what was to come, as God.

"If I see a spirited horse that has taken the bit in its teeth and thrown off its rider, and I say that when it approaches a precipice it will cast itself into it, and then this happens according to my word, I did not cast the horse into the abyss. I predicted that this would happen, using the desperate fury of the horse as a sign.

"But the God of all foresees all things from afar, as God. He does not bring one man under necessity to advance in virtue, and another to do evil. For if He Himself compelled both one and the other, it would be unjust to proclaim one a victor and assign punishment to the other.

"But if God is just, as indeed He is just, then He urges toward the good and forbids the opposite. He praises the doers of good and punishes those who of their own will have loved vice."

Oecumenius cites words of Saint Cyril, though it is not clear which Cyril, in which he affirms that in all these divine actions one must mentally supply what was said before: those who are called according to purpose, kata prothesin, according to their free will.

Thus, "whom He foreknew, He also predestined," tois kata prothesin, in accordance with their free will. "Whom He predestined, these He also called," tois kata prothesin, without binding their free will. "Whom He called, these He also justified," tois kata prothesin, not without the participation of their free will. "Whom He justified, these He also glorified," again those who are called kata prothesin, in conformity with the direction of their free will.