What does it mean to be called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)?

Verse 28. We can, however, say, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” We know this because, God is absolutely for us. This is now brought out to the end of the chapter. “To them who are the called according to his purpose.” God has not called us on account of any good in us, or any purpose in us. Let us carefully mark what His purpose was, for His call is the result of His purpose. This, then, is His purpose: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” He foreknew whom He should call; and He predestinated them, those whom He called, to this glorious destiny, to be like, conformed to the image of, His Son. What a purpose that His Son should be the firstborn among many brethren! How great the privilege to be called to share this place of glory!

The Apostle has shewn how blessedly the Holy Spirit works in us by the new life in Christ, and the indwelling Holy Spirit, producing spiritual experiences. Now we learn that not only is God the Holy Spirit in us, but that God is for us in "all things" that are taking place around us. In regard to all the circumstances of life, the trials, the sorrows, the conflicts and the difficulties, we may not know how to pray as we ought; but this we do know, "That all things work together for good to them that love God". We may not always see how this loss, or that trial, is working for our good, but faith knows that good will be the result in time and eternity. To understand the way in which all things work for good we may have to wait, even as the Lord said to Peter, "What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter". Another has said, "The sorrow may not be remedied, but the sorrow is blessed".

To assure our hearts that all is working for good, we are reminded that we are "the called" of God; and, if called, God has a purpose for us. God saves us because we need saving; God calls us because He wants us. All God's ways with us in the present have in view the fulfilment of His purpose for us in the future.

The call of God came to us in the Gospel by which we were saved (2 Timothy 1:9-10), though it may be at the time we but feebly, if at all, realized that God had called us. Naturally our first concern was salvation from the judgment of God, and rightly our souls were filled with gratitude for this great salvation. Little did we realize that God had something far greater before Him than the salvation of our souls, that God had a glorious purpose for us, and in view of the accomplishment of that purpose He had called us. Yet so it was, for, while the salvation of God has in view our deliverance from judgment, the call of God has in view the accomplishment of God's purpose. Thus we read in Romans 8:28, of the "called according to His purpose."

What a transcendent thought! God has a purpose for His people, settled before the foundation of the world, and in order to accomplish that purpose He has called us. He saved us because we needed saving. He has called us because He wanted us. Thus it is the privilege of each believer to say: "Though God is so great, and I am so small, yet God wants me, and wanting me, He has called me."

We have now brought to us the counsel and favour of God - His own purpose. If through grace any have loved God, they were called according to His purpose. The purpose is not here, nor indeed anywhere, simply sovereignty in election. It includes that to which they were called. They were foreknown; but whom he foreknew He predestinated to a glory which was in His mind and counsels before the world began, namely, to "be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."

We were called according to purpose, and as foreknown of God. He has predestinated us to be like His Son, but mark, it is that HE might be pre-eminent—the Firstborn in that happy circle in heavenly glory—“FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY BRETHREN.”

(V. 8). Abraham is the main witness to the faith that lays hold of the purposes of God, leading him to look on to another world and walk as a stranger in this world. He was called to go out of the country in which he had lived in view of another country which he would afterwards receive. If God calls a man out of this present world it is because He has a better world into which to bring him. It will be remembered that Stephen commences his address before the Jewish council by saying, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham.” That is a wonderful statement, but the statement at the end of the address is more wonderful, for Stephen, looking up steadfastly into heaven and seeing Jesus standing on the right hand of God, can say, “I behold the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.” The beginning of the call is that the God of glory appears to a man on earth; the end is that a Man appears in the glory of God in heaven. Directly the Lord Jesus takes His place in glory we see clearly what Abraham saw dimly — the full result of the call of God. We, like Abraham, have been called according to the purpose of God (2 Timothy 1:9); but this means we have been called out of this present world to have part with Christ in the home of glory where He is, to be actually with Him and like Him — conformed to the image of God's Son (Philippians 3:14; Romans 8:29; 2 Thessalonians 2:14).

These different passages clearly show that if God calls us it is because He has a purpose in His heart which He desires to gratify. Moreover we learn that the "call" involves that we are called out of one world lying in darkness, or ignorance of God, to come into the marvellous light of all that God has purposed for Christ in another world. Further, if we are called to heaven, it is that we may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The prize of the calling on high is to be with Christ and like Christ.

This is the first part of the gospel, and with this the mass of God's people would seek to be content. Nevertheless, the gospel proclaims far greater blessings, for it tells us of the calling of God. Not only has God saved us, but we read He has “called us with an holy calling.” In this passage the calling is referred to as “an holy calling”; it is also spoken of as “the heavenly calling” (Hebrews 3:1) and “the calling on high” (Philippians 3:14). Salvation sets us free from our sins and the judgment-doomed world: the calling links us with heaven and all those spiritual blessings which God has purposed for us in the heavenlies in Christ. Therefore the blessings of God's calling are “not according to our works”, nor our thoughts, nor our deserts, but “according to His own purpose and grace”.

Next is predestination to be conformed to the image of His Son. It is not, let us mark well, merely predestination to be saved, but for future glory as conformed to the image of Christ, who is Himself “the image of God.” Doubtless the moral side of the truth is the prominent one here — that is, that the purity, holiness, and every other blessed virtue of our Lord, will have its bright reflection in His saints. Marvelous purpose indeed, and worthy of such a God! Elsewhere, of course, we learn that even physically our bodies shall be fashioned like unto His body of glory (Phil. 3:21). How blessedly complete the gracious purpose of our God. To our own hearts today could anything compare with being like Him who has saved us both from our sins and from the power of sin? To contemplate such a Person is to long to be like Him.

His title here — “the Firstborn among many brethren” — is plainly one of priority in Person, not in point of time of birth. Colossians 1:15-16 confirms such a principle as to the “firstborn.” Christ is “the firstborn of every creature.” Why? “For by Him were all things created.” Psalm 89:27 bears clear testimony also. Speaking of David as typifying Christ, God declares, “I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.” It is an official dignity far above any mere question of time. In Old Testament times the firstborn according to nature was accorded the priority over his brethren, but this rigid custom was yet oftentimes reversed by God, who gave the birthright to a younger. So now, God would make clear that Adam has been fully dispossessed of all the rights of the firstborn, and these are now eternally held by the Lord Jesus. Yet we may thank God that in grace He (Christ) has “many” whom He is not ashamed to call brethren (Heb. 2:11).

The purpose itself is put clearly before us. Christ is of necessity in the forefront of it, and thus its justification, and the full assurance that it will be carried out. "We know that to those who love God all things work together for good, to those who are the called according to purpose." The present is linked with the future in a most absolute way. From God's foreknowledge of us in the past eternity to the accomplished glory of the future, there is a perfectly linked chain of blessing, no link of which can ever be sundered. God's purpose is that Christ His Son, should be a First-born among many brethren. How blessed to see the grace which is necessarily manifested when Christ is thus in the forefront! It is not here, therefore, the "Only-Begotten," of whom the apostle speaks. The Son is that; but He is here in human guise, a "Firstborn," which implies others, and that is clearly expressed. He is found thus with those whom He is not ashamed to call His brethren. God's purpose, therefore, includes, of necessity, these. If it failed as to the brethren, it would fail as to the Son of His love. They are bound up together in His thoughts.