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?
Foreknown Persons, Not Foreseen Conduct
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.
The Destination: Likeness to Christ
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.
What Conformity Includes
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.
"Firstborn" — A Title of Rank
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).
Christ First, Not Us
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.
An Unbreakable Chain
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.
Summary
- 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.