Romans 8:28-30  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  ²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  ³⁰ Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

It feels good to be picked.  This past Tuesday we had our primary elections here in Wisconsin.  And while I’m sure that everybody’s looking ahead to November, the winners Tuesday night got to experience it for a moment. 

It feels good to be picked.  On the playground when the team captains were picking their players, you heard one of them say your name.  You felt the rush as you joined your teammates.  When the phone rang and the supervisor who interviewed you for that job called back and said that they’d like to offer you that job, it brightened your whole day!  And ladies, never forget the thrill that ran down your spine when that man in your life got down on one knee and asked you to marry him.  He chose you!  And guys, never forget how you felt the moment she said, “Yes!” 

It’s good to be picked.  It gives us a sense of certainty about the world and our own place in it to know that we’re wanted, that we’re chosen for something.  “This is where I belong.”  And yet, the certainty of being chosen for worldly things is nothing—compared to our spiritual certainty.  “We know,” Paul says (v. 28).  We have a certainty that goes beyond every other certainty, the certainty that comes with being chosen by God, one of His elect:  the certainty of being “chosen”—(I) chosen by grace alone, (II) chosen to receive the highest good.  

1. Chosen by grace alone.

Sometimes when we look at Romans 8:28 we really focus in on the first part without noticing the second part:  “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (v. 28).  If all you see is the first part, you might wonder:  “we know that all things work together for good to those who love God”—is God working all things together for our good our reward for loving Him?  Not at all; remember the second part:  “to those who are the called according to His purpose.”  You can put an equals sign in there; those who love God are those who have been called according to His purpose.  God’s gracious call always comes before our love for Him.  In 1 Corinthians 8:23 Paul says that if a man loves God, it is because God has known him.  “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Another equals sign needs to go between the end of verse 28 and the beginning of verse 29.  Those who are called according to His purpose are also those whom God “foreknew.”  God called us because He “foreknew” us.  “Foreknew” is kind of a loaded word.  On the surface it means to “know beforehand,” yet there’s more to it than just head knowledge.  For God to “foreknow” us implies His love for us too, so that, “when faith says, ‘He foreknew me,’ faith says, ‘He has chosen me’” (Martin Franzmann, Commentary on Romans).   God’s knowing us and choosing us are one and the same.  And that choice, that calling of God is always “according to His purpose.” 

Usually when we get picked for something, when we’re chosen for something, the reason why has to do with something about us.  Someone sees something in us—a desirable skill or an attitude.  Or someone sees potential—raw talent that can be shaped over time.  The football coach drafts a player because of his speed or his knowledge of the game.  Yet that’s not how it works with God’s choosing.  The fact that you are chosen by God has nothing to do with you—nothing to do with how much you love God or how well you obey His commands.  Not even your faith matters as part of God’s choice.   When God foreknew you, He didn’t say, “Ah, this person’s going to believe in me someday.” 

What is God’s purpose—God’s reason, God’s plan—in choosing and calling us?  It is “the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11).  It is by His pure grace alone.  We call this the doctrine of election—that from eternity God knew you and chose you as His own purely by His grace, His charitable love and mercy.

Some people spend their entire lives wondering if they are part God’s elect.  They constantly are looking at their own lives and how well (or not so well) they’ve been following God’s Word and asking, “Am I really saved?”  We also wonder about our status as God’s elect from time to time.  You know the sins of your past that you look back on and can’t believe you ever did; the sins that you keep falling into and struggling with again and again.  From within and without you are led to ask the question, “How can I be sure that I really am one of God’s elect?”

Yet the fact that God has chosen you is something you never need to worry about.  In fact, you can be certain about it—not by looking at yourselves or our own obedience, but from the clear Word of God:  “We know,” Paul says (v. 28); we are certain of it.  The doctrine of election was never meant to plant seeds of doubt, but to wipe doubt away.  It was meant to reassure you and comfort you with the knowledge that the love God has for you now is the same love He has had for you from before the beginning of time:  that “God from the beginning chose you for salvation” (2 Thessalonians 2:13).  To talk about God’s election by grace alone from eternity is simply to confess that God is the author of your salvation from beginning to end, to confess that He has loved you “with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3).   

It’s good to be chosen—especially when the One doing the choosing has done so out of love for you.  Yet the Word of God doesn’t just make us certain that God has chosen us by His grace; He makes us certain of what God in His grace has done for us as a result of that choice.  The certainty of being chosen really is that you can be certain you are:   

2. Chosen to receive the highest good.

God’s elective grace chose you to receive a wonderful destiny, the highest good that you could possibly receive:  “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (v. 29).  By God’s grace you are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son; so let’s talk about what that means for a moment.  When you think about what Jesus was like, what are the things that come to mind?  His utterly perfect, holy, sinless life.   His free and complete obedience of the Father, led by the Spirit.  The full communion that He enjoys with the Father, living in His presence.  The joy He has of being enthroned at the Father’s right hand in total glory.  The total victory over sin and death. 

This is the destiny that God has planned for each and every one of you from eternity.  This is the ultimate good that He wants to give you.  This is the image He wants you to have.  To take part in His glory—the glory that lets beggars up on the throne with Him, that grants the poor in spirit the very kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3), that makes you His family. 

By the same grace which chose you beforehand and predestined you, God has now carried out His choice in real time:  “Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified” (v. 30).  Just as Jesus called sinners to His table and His fellowship under the bright sky of the forgiveness He won for them on the cross, so He has sent His messengers to call you.  To call you in the waters of Holy Baptism, to call you through the preaching of the Word of God. 

And those He called, He also justified.  By those means of grace He has declared your sins forgiven and that you are His own dear children.

And those He justified, He also glorified.  Look at that past tense verb there, ”glorified.”  It’s already done!  He has already planted that new life in your hearts by His Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel, the new life that is born of the forgiveness of sins.  And that new life that will find its fulfillment in eternal glory, as we live out our eternity in the presence of God with righteousness and holiness forever. 

Think about all the “accidents” in your life that led you to God, that enabled you to hear His Word, that brought you to faith in Christ, to know of and believe in your salvation in Him.  Yet by God’s Word, “we know”—we are certain—that there are no “accidents” when it comes to what God has worked in our lives; it was God’s call that made us lovers of Him; and it’s God’s grace that still governs everything in our lives, that causes “all things to work together for good.”

We have such a loving and caring God.  And we want others to know our loving, caring God too.  We tend to throw around Romans 8:28 kind of as a “band-aid” to help make people feel better when bad things happen; as if to say, “Don’t worry, God will work this into good… somehow” as if we didn’t know.  But “we know”—this is the certainty that God gives us by His Word, that He has chosen us from eternity to live lives with Him and that He acted on that choice—not only by sending Jesus to save us, but by seeking each of us out, individually, leading us to His good news, so that He could call us, justify us, and glorify us.  This is what it’s all about, really, isn’t it:  this is the good that all things work together towards.  And this is the certain comfort we have for ourselves and to share with those around us.

No matter what you’re struggling with, no matter what’s happening in your life, you know—you are certain—that God by His grace has chosen you to be saved; and that He has acted on His gracious choice by entering your life with His Word.  And He’s still acting according to that gracious choice, still working all things for good—not just some generic good, but our highest, eternal good—the good that is as good as done in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It’s good to be “chosen.”  Of that we are certain.  Amen.