ACC ~ Romans 8 v30

DISTINGUISHING MANY CALLED FROM SOME CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. ORIGEN: I understand this, as do most people, to mean that someone who is justified is justified because he has been called, and that someone is called because he has been predestined, and that he is predestined because he has been foreknown. … Those who think that God’s foreknowledge is limited to knowing what will happen in the future are obviously wrong, for there can be no divine foreknowledge without predestination—the two things go together. . . .

But how can it be that all who are called should be justified, when we know that many are called but few are chosen? It seems to me that here we are talking about a different kind of calling. For indeed many are called, but not all are called according to God’s purpose. … It is only those who are called according to his purpose who are justified. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

AMBROSIASTER: To “call” is to help somebody who is already thinking about faith or else to address him firmly in the knowledge that he will listen. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THOSE WHOM HE CALLED, HE JUSTIFIED. CHRYSOSTOM: God justified them by the regeneration of baptism and glorified them by their adoption as sons. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 15.

AUGUSTINE: Are all those who are called justified? “Many are called, but few are chosen.” But since the elect have certainly been called, it is obvious that they have not been justified without being called. But not everyone is called to justification; only those “who are called according to his purpose.” AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 55.

AUGUSTINE: God elected believers in order that they might believe, not because they already believed. PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 17.34.

PELAGIUS: Those whom God knew in advance would believe, he called. A call gathers together those who are willing to come, not those who are unwilling. … Paul says this because of the enemies of the faith, in order that they may not judge God’s grace to be arbitrary. They are called to believe through preaching and are justified through baptism when they believe, and are glorified with spiritual powers now or in the resurrection to come. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Jesus said: “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He calls everyone to himself, and no one is lacking in the grace of his calling, for when he says everyone he excludes nobody. But those whom he long ago foresaw would come into being he predestined to participate in the future blessings and called them to receive justification by faith in him and not to sin again. EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

GOD’S FOREKNOWING DOES NOT IMPLY DIRECT CAUSING. THEODORET OF CYR: Those whose intention God foreknew he predestined from the beginning. Those who are predestined, he called, and those who were called, he justified by baptism. Those who were justified, he glorified, calling them children: “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.” Let no one say that God’s foreknowledge was the unilateral cause of these things. For it was not foreknowledge which justified people, but God knew what would happen to them, because he is God. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

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