Because whom he has foreknown, he has also predestinated [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, so that he should be [the] firstborn among many brethren.
Romans 8:29 lifts the reader out of present suffering into God's own purpose. That purpose starts before creation and ends in glory. Two questions press for an answer. What does it mean that God "foreknew" people? And what is He shaping them into?
The verse does not say God knew what people would do. One writer points to the wording itself:
Notice something important. The apostle does not speak of a passive or bare foreknowledge (v. 29), as if God only saw in advance what some people would be, or do, or believe. His foreknowledge is of persons, not of their state or conduct; it is not what, but "whom" He foreknew.
Predestination here carries a destination with it.
In eternal love He foreknew each of the individual people in His purpose... And those whom He foreknew in this way, by an absolute and sovereign purpose, He also predestined to the blessing appointed for them. Being conformed to the image of His own Son is the destination of those He foreknew. It is not glory in general, but the exact likeness of Christ, that is the destiny — and, in a sense, the definition — of each individual saint.
The likeness reaches both character and body:
Next is predestination to be conformed to the image of His Son. Mark it well. This is not merely predestination to be saved. It is predestination to future glory, conformed to the image of Christ, who is Himself "the image of God." The moral side of the truth is surely the prominent one here. The purity, holiness, and every other blessed virtue of our Lord will have its bright reflection in His saints... Elsewhere we also learn that even our bodies will be made like His body of glory (Philippians 3:21).
The full likeness is still ahead. Yet something of it can show now.
It is possible to walk as He walked. In that sense we can be like Christ in character even now. But for conformity to His image we must wait for the coming glory. We are still in these lowly bodies. We are subject to sickness and need, and exposed to danger and death.
The title given to the Son is not about the order of births.
His title here — "the firstborn among many brothers" — is clearly about priority in His Person, not about being born first. Colossians 1:15-16 confirms this principle about the "firstborn." Christ is "the firstborn of all creation." Why? "For by Him all things were created."... The title is an official rank, far above any question of time... Yet we may thank God that in grace He has "many" whom He is not ashamed to call brothers (Hebrews 2:11).
The purpose does not stop at our blessing.
We were called according to purpose, and as foreknown of God. He has predestinated us to be like His Son — but note, it is that HE might be pre-eminent, the Firstborn in that happy circle in heavenly glory.
The certainty of the outcome rests on the Son Himself.
From God's foreknowledge of us in eternity past to the finished glory of the future, the chain of blessing is perfectly linked. No link in it can ever be broken. God's purpose is that Christ His Son should be a Firstborn among many brothers... Here He is seen as man, a "Firstborn," and that word implies others... God's purpose therefore includes, of necessity, these. If it failed as to the brothers, it would fail as to the Son of His love. They are bound up together in His thoughts.
- Foreknown — God's foreknowledge here fixes on people, not on their conduct: "whom," not "what."
- Predestined — the choice comes with a destination. Not glory in general, but the exact likeness of Christ, which defines every believer.
- Conformed — His beauty of character is mirrored in us now; our bodies share the likeness at His coming.
- Firstborn — the goal above our blessing is His rank; He stands first in the family, and He is not ashamed to call us His own.
- Unbreakable — the many are bound up with the Son's own honour. So no link from foreknowledge to final glory can ever snap.
But whom he has predestinated, these also he has called; and whom he has called, these also he has justified; but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified.
God's purpose does not stay in eternity — it reaches into a person's life at a fixed moment and carries that life up into glory. The verse traces that route in four steps, and the last step reads as though it had already happened.
The four steps form one linked chain. It starts before time, touches the dated moments of our own lives, and then runs on into eternity.
After predestination came the effectual call that reached us in the gospel. Here we come down to time, to the moments in our different lives when we believed. The next step came at almost the same moment, for when we believed we were justified, not just called. Last of all: "those whom He justified He also glorified." Here our golden chain, having dipped down from eternity into time, loses itself in eternity again.
Scripture uses the word "called" in more than one way. The sense here is narrower than a general invitation.
Notice here that "those who are called according to purpose" are only "those who love God." This is not the same call as in Matthew 22:14 — the call of grace to everyone, which many refuse. Here it is the call of God's purpose, a call no one can refuse — in fact, one that "the called" would never think of refusing.
That same call has two sides.
The Christian is called by God — called with an effectual calling, spoken to by a voice that makes the dead alive. The believer is called in a double sense. As a sinner made alive, he is called from darkness to light, from death into life. And as the one God foreknew for His own pleasure, he is called out of the secret of God's purpose into the open light of His glory as revealed in the face of Jesus Christ.
In this step the believer is the one acted on, not the one acting.
The calling of the gospel is to believe in Jesus. The soul made alive hears and obeys. But the effect of faith is justification, as we have seen. Now justification is an act of the One who justifies, not of the one justified.
Justification is not the end point. It points beyond itself.
Justification has the glory in view. God does not justify us so that we can be lifted high in this world, but so that we can be glorified with Christ in the world to come.
The glory is still ahead of us, yet the verse speaks of it as finished. There is a reason for that.
Then notice that "glorified" appears in the past tense, just as much as "justified." This is the style of the prophets. Everything is viewed from God's side, so although the glory is still to be accomplished, it is seen as if it were already done. If God calls what does not yet exist as though it did, that pledges its existence beyond all doubt.
Many readers expect "sanctified" between justified and glorified. It is not there, and one writer explains why.
This is why this beautiful and precious climax leaves out sanctification and the life in us. The Spirit had already taught our souls about these things at the start of the chapter… Here we have certainty and security, resting on what God is and on His purposes. He has foreknown His children. He has predestinated them to a certain glory, a certain marvellous blessing: to be conformed to the image of His Son. He has called them, He has justified them, He has glorified them. God has done all this.
Every link is God's own work. So the chain cannot fail — not even where you feel weakest.
Here there is no uncertainty. God Himself has secured the sure salvation of all believers. No power of man or Satan can break any one of those four links… This divine statement of eternal security takes no account at all of our imperfect state and our weakness. "God for us" brushes aside every difficulty. It is the weakest believer's triumphant answer to every doubt of unbelief.
- Purpose starts it. Predestination reaches back before time. The whole verse describes God's own work, seen from His side, not ours.
- Calling lands it. This call is God's purpose reaching the people He marked out. It is not the general invitation that many refuse.
- Justifying grounds it. God justifies; the believer does not justify himself. And justification aims at glory with Christ, not at status in this world.
- Glory finishes it. "Glorified" stands in the past tense because what God pledges is as certain as what He has already done.
- Nothing breaks it. Sanctification is left out so that only God's acts appear. That is why the believer's weakness never enters the count.