Romans 8:29

Romans 8:29. This verse and the next prove the statement of Romans 8:28, showing how the calling agrees with God's purpose, forming part of His plan; the successive steps of the unfolding of this purpose are indicated, up to the certain glorification of the chosen ones. The whole matter is stated as presenting the objective ground of confidence of believers. The other side is not touched upon, and no attempt is made to solve the great problem of reconciling the two. Those read aright here, who seek to learn for their comfort what God has done for them in eternity. How He did these successive acts is beyond our comprehension; why He did them can be answered in this world only by the responsive love of the believer's heart. But precisely because the Apostle is pressing the objective, Divine side of our salvation, we should not attempt to depart from the obvious sense of his words in order to attempt to accommodate his language to that phase of the subject he is not discussing.

Whom he foreknew, he also foreordained. ‘Predestinated' is quite accurate, but ‘foreordained' preserves the correspondence with the previous verb which is found in the Greek. God knew beforehand certain individuals of our race, and those He destined beforehand, etc. The foreknowledge precedes the foreordaining, is its ground as it were (although strictly speaking, there is no before nor after in the eternal God). Hence we must not confound the two, nor apply them to other than the same individuals; nor should we depart from the obvious sense of ‘foreknew' by explaining it as meaning ‘approve' (introducing the idea of foreseen faith). Such a thought is, moreover, entirely foreign to the context. Of course, the foreknowledge differs from God's ‘prescience of which all men and all events are the objects' (Hodge), but it does not of itself include the idea of selection, though closely connected with it here. The beginning of the whole plan is in the good pleasure of God: He foreknew certain persons as those whom He would destine unto salvation, and those He foreordained. That they would believe is also included in His plan, but it is precisely this subjective ground of salvation which the Apostle does not even name in this entire section.

To be conformed to the image of his son. Some limit this to conformity to Christ in having a glorified body, but the whole context favors a wider reference to ‘that entire form, of glorification in body and sanctification in spirit, of which Christ is the perfect pattern, and all His people shall be partakers' (Alford). Some include a present partaking in His sufferings and moral character. While this may be implied (for the thought of suffering is not remote, Romans 8:18; Romans 8:31, etc.), it must not be made the main idea. Predestination is more than predestination to holiness through suffering; though attempts have been made to represent this as the only predestination that is defensible.

That he might be. The final purpose of the predestination, is concerning Christ; comp. Ephesians 1:4-5.

The first-born among many brethren. First in order of time, as well as chief in rank; comp. Colossians 1:15. The purpose of grace began in Him, even as His glory is its end. Some place the emphasis upon ‘firstborn'; others upon ‘many brethren'; but because the end of the foreknowledge and foreordaining is the glory of Christ in His people, equal emphasis rests on both; nothing can separate the first-born and His many brethren.