Paul teaches that when the gospel is preached, God calls some so powerfully that their hearts and minds are changed about Jesus Christ and they embrace him in faith and love.
The call of God that Paul has in mind is not like the call of a pet: "Here Blackie. Here Blackie. Come on girl." Blackie may or may not come. The call of God is like the call of Jesus to the corpse of Lazarus: "Lazarus, come forth!" The call contains the power to produce what it commands. It is an effectual call. Theologians call lit “prevenient grace – God reaching out to us, to draw us into intimacy with Him.
Therefore when Romans 8:28 says, "All things work together to good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose," it means that the beneficiaries of this massive promise are those who once did not love God but now do love God because God himself has called them effectually from darkness to light, from unbelief to faith, from death to life, and has planted within them a love to himself.
The effectual call of God is the new covenant fulfillment of the promise in Deuteronomy 30:6,"And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live."
The reason that the beneficiaries of Romans 8:28 can have such certainty that God will indeed fulfill this promise for them is that God himself has effectually called them into his covenant and caused them to qualify for it.
It is one thing if God sends out a mass mailing addressed "to whom it may concern" inviting all to the banquet where all things work together for good. But it is quite another if God himself drives up to your front door, walks in, picks you up, puts you in the car, drives you to the banquet of Romans 8:28, gives you the banquet garment of love, and then seats you at the right hand of his Son. Would not his own personal initiative in the second case give you a deeper confidence that God does indeed intend to pursue you with mercy all your days and work everything together for your good?
We deny ourselves such deep and wonderful assurances when we do not embrace the doctrine of God's sovereign, effectual call. There is such strength that comes into the walk of a Christian when he knows how it is that he came to be a beneficiary of this incomparable promise. Our confidence that all the hard and happy things in our life will in fact become the servants of our good is based not merely the fact that there is a promise in the Bible, but also on the fact that from all eternity God in his great mercy has chosen us to enjoy his banquet and has given us evidence of our election by calling into being (out of stone!) a heart that loves God.
We can get rather "charismatic" about this, like the football referee who throws both hands up high when a touchdown is scored. What a great and wonderful gift God has given us. More on this tomorrow. Adapted from John Piper
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