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Romans 8:28-30 gives us a very nice picture of God's redemptive plan.
This golden chain of redemption is: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, regeneration, faith, repentance, justification, union to Christ, adoption, sanctification, and glorification.
An alternative that some like to use:
decrees of God, predestination, election, outward call, effectual call, saving faith, repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification, death, glorification
foreknowledge - God's love of His chosen (the elect) before time (Eph. 1:11).
predestination - God's sovereign eternal decree as relates to the elect and the reprobate (Eph. 1:3-14).
calling - God's ordinary means, the hearing of the Scripture, the outward call, that effectuates the inward call of the elect (Eph. 2:1-3).
regeneration - the quickening of the "dead men walking" to life: new genesis, the beginning of a new life in a radically renewed person (1 Peter 1:23).
faith - the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen - a vital and personal trust in Christ as Savior and Lord (Rom. 10:5-13).
repentance - the radical turning from sin to Christ, the fruit of regeneration (2 Cor. 7:8-12).
justification - a forensic act of God declaring, counting, reckoning those "in Christ" righteous (Phil. 3:7-11).
union to Christ - the joining of the regenerated (quickened) radically new person with Christ by God. The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God’s grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband; which is done in their effectual calling. (Eph. 1:22; Eph. 2:6-8).
adoption - we are now related to Christ as branches of the True Vine, the children of God (John 15:1,5).
sanctification - our walk of faith towards greater destruction of the dominion of sin and the lusts thereof (Rom.6:6,14; Gal.5:24; Rom.8:13).
glorification - as we will be after the Lord's Second Coming (1 Cor. 15:53).
A short look at Romans 8:30:
"Moreover whom He predestined,
- Moreover carries forward Romans 8:29:
"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. "
- God ordained those to be called from eternity—you cannot undo what God ordains. – They are predestined to be conformed—not to perhaps be conformed.
these He also called;
- The predestined were called, for they were foreknew and predestined—no wooing, pleading, etc. (Rom. 1:7; Romans 8:28)
whom He called, these He also justified;
- Justification of whom (the predestined) comes by faith;
- faith comes by re-birth, the quickening (regeneration) by the Spirit from spiritual death;
- the Spirit establishes the union;
- once so quickened the mind can know, assent and trust the truth of the Gospel—saving faith;
- from saving faith comes the recognition of one's wickedness and need for repentance;
- the justified are now one of the adopted (among the "many brethren" from Romans 8:29); and
- the adopted are "to be conformed" through the walk of sanctification, becoming masterpieces performing the good works God planned from eternity (Eph. 2:10).
and whom He justified, these He also glorified."
- The predestined, who were called, regenerated, joined with Christ, believed, repented, were justified, adopted, and sanctified, are now glorified (Romans 8:17).
- Indeed this glory has already begun, for the believer is raised with Christ (Col. 3:1), is in His train when He ascended (Eph. 4:8), and are being transformed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18).
- Note the exclusive use of the past tense—glorified (cf. Jude 14; most of Isa. 53)—indicating a certainty that a future event will occur, and, in the present, the fact that the promised glory of the future has already begun.
One the matter of preservation of the saints, as the above passage teaches, one cannot remove oneself from the golden chain of salvation. There are no conditional clauses, verbs, or tenses, that one can appeal to in support of a belief that that those who have been regenerated (born again) can lose their salvation. Those that “lose” their salvation never had it, for they were never foreknew and predestineed to be called in the first place.
AMR
This golden chain of redemption is: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, regeneration, faith, repentance, justification, union to Christ, adoption, sanctification, and glorification.
An alternative that some like to use:
decrees of God, predestination, election, outward call, effectual call, saving faith, repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification, death, glorification
foreknowledge - God's love of His chosen (the elect) before time (Eph. 1:11).
predestination - God's sovereign eternal decree as relates to the elect and the reprobate (Eph. 1:3-14).
calling - God's ordinary means, the hearing of the Scripture, the outward call, that effectuates the inward call of the elect (Eph. 2:1-3).
regeneration - the quickening of the "dead men walking" to life: new genesis, the beginning of a new life in a radically renewed person (1 Peter 1:23).
faith - the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen - a vital and personal trust in Christ as Savior and Lord (Rom. 10:5-13).
repentance - the radical turning from sin to Christ, the fruit of regeneration (2 Cor. 7:8-12).
justification - a forensic act of God declaring, counting, reckoning those "in Christ" righteous (Phil. 3:7-11).
union to Christ - the joining of the regenerated (quickened) radically new person with Christ by God. The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God’s grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband; which is done in their effectual calling. (Eph. 1:22; Eph. 2:6-8).
adoption - we are now related to Christ as branches of the True Vine, the children of God (John 15:1,5).
sanctification - our walk of faith towards greater destruction of the dominion of sin and the lusts thereof (Rom.6:6,14; Gal.5:24; Rom.8:13).
glorification - as we will be after the Lord's Second Coming (1 Cor. 15:53).
A short look at Romans 8:30:
"Moreover whom He predestined,
- Moreover carries forward Romans 8:29:
"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. "
- God ordained those to be called from eternity—you cannot undo what God ordains. – They are predestined to be conformed—not to perhaps be conformed.
these He also called;
- The predestined were called, for they were foreknew and predestined—no wooing, pleading, etc. (Rom. 1:7; Romans 8:28)
whom He called, these He also justified;
- Justification of whom (the predestined) comes by faith;
- faith comes by re-birth, the quickening (regeneration) by the Spirit from spiritual death;
- the Spirit establishes the union;
- once so quickened the mind can know, assent and trust the truth of the Gospel—saving faith;
- from saving faith comes the recognition of one's wickedness and need for repentance;
- the justified are now one of the adopted (among the "many brethren" from Romans 8:29); and
- the adopted are "to be conformed" through the walk of sanctification, becoming masterpieces performing the good works God planned from eternity (Eph. 2:10).
and whom He justified, these He also glorified."
- The predestined, who were called, regenerated, joined with Christ, believed, repented, were justified, adopted, and sanctified, are now glorified (Romans 8:17).
- Indeed this glory has already begun, for the believer is raised with Christ (Col. 3:1), is in His train when He ascended (Eph. 4:8), and are being transformed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18).
- Note the exclusive use of the past tense—glorified (cf. Jude 14; most of Isa. 53)—indicating a certainty that a future event will occur, and, in the present, the fact that the promised glory of the future has already begun.
One the matter of preservation of the saints, as the above passage teaches, one cannot remove oneself from the golden chain of salvation. There are no conditional clauses, verbs, or tenses, that one can appeal to in support of a belief that that those who have been regenerated (born again) can lose their salvation. Those that “lose” their salvation never had it, for they were never foreknew and predestineed to be called in the first place.
AMR