Romans 8:29

Rom_8:29

For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son.

Foreknowledge and predestination

The for bears on the previous verse. All things must turn to the good of them that are called according to Gods eternal plan, because, once foreknown, He has determined to bring them to the glorious consummation of perfect likeness to His Son. The decree of predestination is founded on the act of foreknowledge. In what respect did God foreknow them? Obviously not as being one day to exist. For the foreknowledge in that case would apply to all men, and the apostle would not have said whom He foreknew. Neither is it as future saved and glorified ones that He foreknew them; for this is the object of the decree of predestination of which Paul goes on to speak; and this object cannot at the same time be that of the foreknowledge. There is but one answer: foreknown as sure to fulfil the condition of salvation, viz., faith; so: foreknown as His by faith. The act of knowing, like that of seeing, supposes an object perceived. It is not the act that creates the object, but the object which determines the act. And the same is the case with Divine prevision or foreknowledge: for in the case of God who lives above-time foreseeing is seeing; knowing what shall be is knowing what to Him already is. And therefore it is the believers faith which, as a future act, but in His sight already existing, which determines His foreknowledge. This faith does not exist because God sees it; He sees it because it will come into being at a given moment, in time. We thus get at the thought of the apostle: whom God knew beforehand as certain to believe, whose faith He beheld eternally, He designated, predestinated, as the objects of a grand decree, to wit, that He will not abandon them till He has brought them to the perfect likeness of His own Son. Will in God is neither arbitrary nor blind; it is based on a principle of light, on knowledge. In relation to the man whose faith God foresees, He decrees salvation and glory. The predestination of which Paul speaks is not a predestination to faith, but a predestination to glory, founded on the prevision of faith. Faith is in a sense the work of God; but it contains a factor, in virtue of which it reacts on God, as an object reacts on the mind which takes cognizance of it; this is the free adherence of man to the solicitation of God. Here is the element which distinguishes the act of foreknowledge from that of predestination, and because of which the former logically precedes the latter. (Prof. Godet.)

The believers conformity to Christ

There is a threefold conformity which a believer is said to have to Christ--of holiness, of suffering, of glory. First, of holiness and sanctification. Every true child of God he is predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ, that is, to be holy as He was holy. And this again to a double purpose. First, in affection and disposition, to be carried by the same spirit. Let the same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus (Php_2:5; Rom_8:9). Again, secondly, in life and conversation; we must be like to Him in this also (1Jn_2:6). When we say that we are to be like Christ, and to do that which He did, this is rightly to be understood by us, and in that sense wherein it is spoken; namely, as to those kind of actions alone which are imitable by us, and which it lies in our way to follow, and to conform unto, and to take Him for our ensample. There are three sorts of actions of Christs which are mentioned in Scripture. First, His work of mediation. Secondly, His working of miracles. And thirdly, His works of obedience, and conformity to the law of God in all those moral actions which came from Him. The two former of these they are wholly beyond our imitation. God will Himself one day make a serious search and inquiry here into. He will ask concerning every man whose image and superscription he hath upon him, whether the image of Christ, or the image of Satan. And according as it is in this respect with him, so shall be also his future condition. Men may possibly sometimes herein deceive others, and oftentimes do so. While it is said here, that we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ; and that this in one sense is meant of holiness; then we see here what I formerly hinted, that our sanctification is a special fruit and effect of our election, and that which the Lord does mainly and chiefly intend to us in His choosing of us. The second conformity, in which believers stand to Christ, is a conformity of suffering and of affliction. This was another image of His whereby He was made known to the world. And this in all the particular explications of it; as, first, in the cause of suffering, we are conformable in this, for as Christ suffered for righteousness sake (1Pe_2:21-22). Secondly, as in the cause of suffering, so also in the kind of suffering, there is a conformity to Christs image in this also. Kind for kind, reproach, disgrace, hatred, outward violence, and death itself in the worst circumstances of it. Thirdly, in the manner of suffering. There is in Christians, and so ought to be likewise a conformity to Christ in this also. To suffer with the same spirit as we find Him to have done. The consideration of this point may be thus far useful to us. First, as it may serve to inform us of the state and condition of a Christian what it is. Therefore secondly, this teaches us all to prepare and to provide for suffering. Thirdly, we have hence also a ground of patience and comfort in afflictions, which do at any time fall upon us, that they are not such things as do come to us by chance, but by special order and dispensation from God. The third and last, is a conformity in glory. This is another kind of correspondency which the Scripture does sometimes intimate and declare unto us, that we shall be changed into the same image with Christ from glory to glory (2Co_3:18). And as we have born the image of the earthly, so we shall also bear the image of the heavenly (1Co_15:49). It is said in Joh_17:22, The glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given them. This is grounded, first of all upon the forementioned union which believers have with Christ; as from thence they conform to Him in His sufferings, so also in His glory. Secondly, we have the praise of Christ to this purpose, Ye which have been with Me in My temptations, ye shall be with Me in My kingdom (Luk_22:30). Thirdly, we have for this also the prayer of Christ (Joh_17:24). As the promise of Christ is most infallible, so the prayer of Christ is most effectual; and as Christ is sure to perform whatever He hath made tender of to us, so He is sure also to obtain whatever He hath requested for us. God the Father will hear His Son in all His petitions; I know, says He, that Thou hearest Me always (Joh_11:42). And so in this petition especially, amongst and above all the rest. The use of this point to ourselves comes to this--First, as matter of comfort and satisfaction to us in all those troubles and afflictions which do at any time befall us, and our conformity to Christ in suffering. Secondly, this may serve also to put a lustre and splendour upon the saints and servants of God in the midst of all those disparagements and contempts which are cast upon them. Thirdly, we should also hence labour to be fitted for this glorious condition of conformity to Christ in glory. The third and last is the limitation of this conformity here mentioned, and that is in these words, That He might be the first-born among many brethren. First, to take notice of their relation; the saints, and such as are true Christians, they are all of them brethren. First, brethren to Christ; they are His brethren, thus in Heb_2:11-12. First, as partaking of the same nature. Secondly, as partaking of the same Father. Thirdly, as partaking of the same Spirit, etc. Secondly, they are brethren also, as being so one to another (1Th_5:26-27; 1Jn_3:16). This they are said to be upon a various account. First, as of the same profession and of the same heavenly calling. Secondly, of the same family and household; the family of heaven, the household of faith. Thirdly, having the same inheritance allotted unto them. The third and last particular is their order; to wit, in reference to Christ, and that is, they are younger brethren, that He might be the first-born amongst them; and herein especially does consist the limitation of the saints for their conformity to Christs image. It is still with this reservation, that He is the chief and principal. Christ He is the first-born amongst many brethren, take notice of that. Christ is the first-born; that is, the Chief. First, in point of holiness; He is the first-born in this explication, and that in a twofold respect. First, in regard of capacity, as He hath a greater measure of holiness in Himself than any of His brethren. Secondly, in regard of conveyance, as He is the spring and fountain, and deriver of holiness unto them. Secondly, in point of suffering. It holds there also that Christ hath the precedency and priority afore any other besides. This seems in a special manner to be here intended. That the sufferings of Christ, they were greater than all the sufferings of any of the saints. First, they were greater subjective, in regard of the eminency of the person that did undergo them, as being no other than the Son of God Himself, the Lord of glory. Secondly, those sufferings of Christ, they were greater, also extensive, in regard of things which He suffered in, as to all kinds and particulars; not only in His body, in all the parts and members thereof, but also in His soul, as to all the powers and faculties thereof. Thirdly, greater intensive in regard of the exquisiteness of the pains and torments themselves which He suffered; it is said, It pleased the Lord to bruise Him (Isa_53:10). The third and last is in point of glory; Christ has the pre-eminence here likewise. We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son of God in this particular amongst the rest; but yet still so as we must give Him leave to go before us, and to have the precedency of us; upon which account He is called not only the Author, but also the Captain of their salvation (Heb_2:10). First, Christ as the Head of the Church hath the pre-eminence of dignity and power, and of all here in this life. The first-born in ancient time had the precedency in this particular. The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power, as it is in Gen_49:3. They were princes and priests in their families. Secondly, for the life to come; Christ He hath the pre-eminence of the saints here also, being the great Heir of eternal glory. It is true they are made conformable to His image in glory; but it is to the truth of His image, not to the transcendency; they are partakers with Him of the same glory in kind, but not of the same glory in degree. Therefore accordingly it should teach us to give all honour and glory unto Him, as standing in this relation to us, and we to Him, as members under this Head, as subjects under this Lord, as younger brethren under this First-born. (Thomas Horton, D.D.)

The object of predestination--conformity to Christ

It is a sad circumstance that a large number of professing Christians completely overlook that in which our salvation chiefly consists. Those of whom we speak say, To be forgiven is to be saved--to be justified is to be saved. But to be forgiven is only a part of salvation, to be justified is only a part of salvation. God teaches us that redemption consists, not merely in being accounted righteous, but in being made righteous. We are told by the Apostle Paul that Christians are predestinated to be conformed to the image of Gods Son. Gods provision for renewing man contemplates likeness to Christ. This provision consists of the atonement and the ministrations of the Holy Ghost. Christian truth has its centre and substance in Christ; and the Holy Ghost in His revelations to us, reveal chiefly Christ. Such contact must produce correspondence and likeness. No nobler pattern could be present to God. Look, for a moment, simply at the human nature of Christ. There, in that human nature, all is goodness. We will carry these remarks a little further, and say that conformity to a less perfect pattern would not exhaust those capacities of the human soul which God gave to that soul when He created it, or satisfy the thirsts awakened in the human spirit, when that spirit is reconciled to God. The heart of man is capable of being made a complete likeness of God. Oh, how you sin against yourselves when you degrade yourselves--when you act as though you were sent into this world simply to eat, and drink, and put on raiment! We remark, further, that all under the Christian dispensation, who seek renewal into Gods image, make Christ their Example. Now, in this real human life Christ sets us an example. He hereby shows what humanity in close connection with God can be. The end and tendency of all Divine dispensations, since the Fall, have been to fix the attention of mankind on Christ. Now, while the thoughts of renewed men are frequently occupied with their Saviour, their hearts are warm towards Him. Cold metal will not take the mould; you may try to drive it into the mould, but you cannot; or, if you get it into the mould by powerful hammers, it will not take the form of the mould even then; it will come out as an unshapen lump; but metal liquified will run into any shape. Just so the soul of man in contact with Christ. When that soul is fused by the power of love, it immediately takes the likeness of the Saviour. If we could only raise our eyes above the level of the Church, and fix them upon the Saviour, there would be an improvement in our character, and in our style of life immediately. The image becomes an essential part of the individual. It is in the core of his nature. It is a substantial likeness wrought into the material of the inner self. Now let us, for a moment, dwell on the fact that this likeness is visible. God, of course, sees it. The angels see it--renewed men see it, the ungodly sometimes see it. All may see it. Not if you take your microscope and magnify a mote until it seem a beam, and a beam so large that nought beside is visible!--you will not see it then. If you apply your microscope to some one of your faults, you will not then see the likeness of Christ. You must look at yourselves as a whole, if you would judge of that which is being done for you. Or, to use another illustration, you will not see the likeness of Christ, if you take your dissecting knife, and, cutting out some plague spot of the flesh, examine it as though that dull, foul lump were the whole body--of course, you will not see the Divine workmanship in your character then, Nor will you be able to see it if you look for the stature and strength of manhood, where you can expect to find only the form and the feebleness of infancy? But if you know what to look for, where to look for it, and when, then the image of God, in the regenerated man, may be seen by you; seen, if you be regenerated, in your own heart, and seen in others, if they too be born again. Let me remind you that the delineation of Gods image is progressive. We all with open face, beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. They are born again to possess this image, and as they grow up into it, it expands and becomes perfected. (S. Martin.)

Predestination

The apostle is not here describing a chain of causes and effects, but simply showing the method in which God works; the order in which the several branches of salvation constantly follow each other. This will be clear if we survey the work of God in the salvation of men--

I. Forward.

1. God foreknew all who would believe--i.e., speaking after the manner of men, for properly there is neither fore or after knowledge in God. All time, or rather all eternity, is present to Him at once. But we must not think that things are because He knows them, any more than the sun shines because I see it. Men are as free in believing or not believing as if God did not know it at all.

2. Whom God foreknew He predestinated, etc.

i.e. God decrees from everlasting that all who believe in the Son of His love shall be conformed to His image. Accordingly all who believe in Christ receive the end of their faith, the salvation of their souls, and this in virtue of the unchangeable decree, He that believeth shall be saved, etc.

3. Whom He predestinated He also called--outwardly by His Word, inwardly by His Spirit.

4. Whom He called He justified--i.e., here, made just. He executed the decree, conforming them to the image of His Son, or sanctified them.

5. Whom He justified He glorified. Having made them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints, He gives them the kingdom prepared for them.

II. Backward.

1. Take your stand with the multitude which no man can number, and you will find none who was not sanctified before he was glorified.

2. Take a view of the sanctified on earth and you will find all were first called.

3. Who are they that are thus called but those whom God had predestinated to be conformed to the image of Christ, for God calls none, but according to the counsel of His will.

4. All God predestinated He foreknew. He saw them as believers, and as such predestinated them to salvation according to the eternal decree. He that believeth shall be saved. Conclusion: God sees and knows from everlasting to everlasting through one eternal now. Yet in condescension to our weakness He speaks after the manner of men of His purpose, counsel, plan, foreknowledge. (John Wesley, M.A.)

Predestination

I. In relation to man. What is the design of God in predestination? Conformity to the image of His Son. To make a little Jesus Christ of a man--that is what God does. What God predestines to do for man is what man, left to himself, does not and never will wish for. No unconverted man, no lost soul, no devil wishes to be like Christ. To wish to be good is itself a kind of goodness, and to wish to be like Jesus Christ is in some degree to resemble Him. Observe--

1. There is nothing here about a predestination of men to eternal misery. Our text speaks of nothing but good for man.

2. Predestination has reference to character rather than condition. It is not a plan by which men are to be made happy hereafter irrespectively of their inward nature and disposition.

3. The predestination of God includes all the laws, processes, means, and instruments by which the result is secured, as adapted to the constitution of the mind, the will, and the affections, to be renewed and sanctified. In His providential dealings the plan of God includes not only the end, but the means. The man who only takes a part of Gods plan might sit down in the corner of the field, and there reason, If a crop of corn is to grow here, it will grow; therefore I will lie down and leave the matter to God. But the man who has a firmer faith in predestination will say, If a crop of corn is to grow here, I must labour because labour is comprehended in Gods scheme. Therefore the man who contents himself with saying, If I am to be saved I shall be saved, is only half a believer in predestination. The thorough believer in it will give all diligence to make his calling and election sure, and work out his own salvation, because it is God that worketh in him.

4. The only evidence of personal predestination is in the attainment of the end proclaimed--Conformity to Christ. You may hold the doctrine of election and yet be none of the elect. You may be a drunkard, etc., and that is no part of Gods purpose. You may even reject the doctrine, and yet be yourself an exemplification of it--Gods workmanship.

II. In relation to God.

1. It is God who works salvation in those who are saved. It is not that we have nothing to do and are to abandon ourselves to the current of events, but that the first and efficient Author of our salvation is God.

2. What God works in time is the effect of His eternal purpose. As the act of election is the act of God, so it is not done without forethought and design. The whole universe is formed, and all its parts organised after the purpose of God, planned by infinite wisdom and regulated by infinite power. Now, if this be so in regard to the fall of a sparrow, the numbering of the hairs of our head, etc., how much more in the building of the spiritual kingdom and temple of God! If the framework of the scaffold has been so wisely formed, how much more the palace to which it is subordinate! What it was right for Him to do, it was right for Him to purpose to do. Conclusion: The Divine predestination--

1. Wears towards men only an aspect of love. Its sole object is to make men like Christ.

2. Respects the accomplishment of a work of grace, which without would never be accomplished at all.

3. The only satisfactory mark of our interest in it is our conformity to Christ.

4. In the experience of salvation let this doctrine have its proper place. There is predestination in the entire process. But the use of means comes before attainment of the end. The first appeal of God to us is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us begin with that. Leave out for the present the perplexing question, Am I one of the elect? Our election must manifest itself by our growing conformity to Christ. The purpose of God is to be read in the work of God. And if this evidence appear, let it humble and awaken gratitude in you. (P. Strutt.)

Predestination

is to mark out beforehand especially in ones mind. Only in Eph_1:5; Eph_1:11; Act_4:28; 1Co_2:7. It is more definite than purpose. A parent who before his child is old enough for a trade, chooses a trade for him, predestines the boy. He marks out beforehand a path in which he designs him to go. So God from eternity resolved that believers should be made like His Son. Foreordination is simply a purpose, and by no means implies the inevitable accomplishment of the purpose. The boy marked out for one trade may enter another. But it might be thought that what God foreordained must in every case be realised. But God has thought fit that the accomplishment of His own purposes shall depend upon mans faith. Hence Paul solemnly warns his readers that, unless they continue in faith, they will, although foreordained to glory, be cut off (Rom_11:21-22). So in Jer_18:7-12, God expressly declares that the accomplishment of His purpose of blessing to Israel depends upon Israels conduct. The doctrine of predestination is thus consistent with the teaching that salvation depends upon each mans own faith (Rom_9:32; Rom_11:22 f); with the teaching that God is using means to lead all men to repentance (Rom_2:4); and with the universality of the purpose of redemption (Rom_5:18). (Prof. Beet.)

Glorious predestination

I. Our conformity to Christ is the sacred object of predestination. We are to be conformed to Him--

1. As to nature. It is not possible for us to be Divine, yet we are made partakers of the Divine nature. We cannot be precisely as God is, yet as we have borne the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. The new birth as surely stamps us with the image of Christ as our first birth impressed us with a resemblance to the fathers of our flesh.

2. As to relationship. Our Lord is the Son of God; and truly now are we the sons of God. As Christs Sonship was attested at His baptism by the voice from heaven and the Holy Ghost, so the voice of God in the Word has testified to us our Heavenly Fathers love; and the Holy Spirit has borne witness with our spirits that we are the children of God.

3. In our actions. As a Son Christ served His Father, and you could see the nature of God in His sympathy with and exact imitation of God; and so we are to speak the truth, for God is true; love, for God is love. Moreover, Christ wrought miracles of mercy towards men, which proved Him to be the Son of God. And our Lord has told us that greater works than His own shall we do.

4. In our experience.

(1) Of suffering. Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered. And if we be without chastisement then are we bastards, and not sons.

(2) In relation to men. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not, and so we have to go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.

(3) With regard to Satan. You know how thrice he assailed Him with those temptations which are most likely to be attractive to poor humanity, but Jesus overcame them all. We are predestinated to he conformed to Christ in that respect.

(4) As to all evil, our Lords entire life was one perpetual battle. And we are to be holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners.

5. As to character. He was consecrated to God; so are we to be. He went about His Fathers business; so should we ever be occupied. Towards man He was all love; it becomes us to be the same.

6. As to our inheritance, for He is heir of all things, and what less are we heirs of, since all things are ours?

II. Predestination is the impelling force towards this conformity.

1. It is the will of God that conforms us to Christs image rather than our own will. It is our will now, but it was Gods will when it was not our will, and it only became according to our will when God made us willing in the day of its power.

2. It is rather Gods work than our work. We are to work with God in the matter of our becoming like to Christ. We are not to be passive like wood or marble; we are to be prayerful, watchful, fervent, etc., but still the work is Gods.

3. Therefore all the glory must be unto God and not to us. It is a great honour to any man to be like Christ; and we must lay all our honours at His dear feet, who hath, according to His abundant mercy, predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son.

III. The ultimate end of all this is Christ. That He might be the first-born.

1. God predestinates us to be like Jesus that He might be the first of a new order of beings, nearer to God than any other. There is no kinship between Jesus and angels.

2. The object of grace is that there may be some in heaven with whom Christ can hold brotherly converse. Many brethren--not that He might be the firstborn among many, but among many brethren, who should be like Himself. No doubt, however, the text means that these will for ever love and honour Christ Himself. We love Jesus now, and how will we, when we get to heaven, love and adore Him as our dear Elder Brother with whom we shall be on terms of the closest familiarity and most reverent obedience.

3. God was so well pleased with His Son, and saw such beauties in Him, that He determined to multiply His image. The face of Jesus is more lovely to God than all the worlds; therefore doth the Father will to have His Sons beauty reflected in ten thousand mirrors in saints made like to Him. Conclusion: Keep your model before you. You see what you are predestinated to be; aim at it every day. Above all, commune much with Christ. Communion is the fountain of conformity. They said of Achilles, that when he was a child they fed him upon lions marrow, and so made him brave; and of Nero, that he was suckled by a woman of a ferocious nature. If we take our nutriment from the world, we shall be worldly; but, if we live upon Christ and dwell in Him, our conformity with Him shall be accomplished, and we shall be recognised as brethren of that blessed family of which Jesus Christ is the firstborn. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Conformity to Christ predestinated

I. The nature of this conformity with respect to--

1. His sonship.

2. His moral character.

3. His offices.

4. His suffering and humiliation.

5. His glory.

II. The act of God in pursuance of that end. Predestination is an act agreeable--

1. To Gods nature.

2. To the analogy of nature.

3. To the conduct of His providence in Christ.

Conclusion: Predestination--

1. Affords no comfort to those who are not conformed to Christ.

2. Does not destroy the voluntary character of human actions, nor involve force or compulsion. (Biblical Museum.)

Conformity to Christ

I. Wherein this conformity consists.

1. In afflictions (Isa_53:3). This must be expected by us (Joh_15:20). He calls us to no harder lot than He Himself endured.

2. In righteousness and holiness (Php_2:5; Mat_11:29).

(1) This is the end of conformity to Him in our afflictions (Heb_12:10).

(2) This is the way to conformity to Him in glory (2Co_3:18).

(3) This is a sign of our communion with Christ (1Jn_2:6).

(4) This will give us boldness in the judgment (1Jn_4:17).

3. In felicity and glory. Conformity to Christ showeth us not only what we should do, but what we may expect. As to--

(1) The body (Php_3:21).

(2) The soul (1Co_15:4; 1Jn_3:2; Psa_17:15).

II. Why this is the distinction between the elect and others.

1. This suiteth with Gods design of recovering man out of his lapsed estate, by setting up a pattern of holiness and happiness in our nature.

(1) Our primitive glory was Gods image (Gen_1:26).

(2) When this glory was lost none was fit to restore it but the Son of God made man; for thereby the glory of the Father was again visible in Him in our nature (Col_1:18; Heb_1:3). Therefore all the heirs of promise are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, or to God appearing in their nature.

2. Because they are all called after Christs name--Christians. Now all that are called after Christs name should be framed after His image, otherwise they will be called Christians to the disgrace of Christ. Surely, then, we ought to live as if another Christ were come into the world (2Ti_2:19).

3. Because all that are elected by God and redeemed by Christ are sealed by the Spirit (Eph_1:15; Eph_4:30; 2Co_1:22). What is this but the image of Christ impressed upon the soul by His Spirit?

4. Because Christ was an example. It is a great advantage not only to have a rule, but a pattern, because man is so prone to imitate.

(1) By this example our pattern is the more complete. There are some graces wherein we cannot be said to resemble God, as in humility, patience, obedience. But in these we have pattern from Christ (Mat_11:29; Heb_5:8; 1Pe_1:21).

(2) It shows that a holy life is possible to those who are renewed by grace.

(3) It shows what will be the issue and success of a life spent in patience and holiness (1Pe_1:21). Conclusion: The use is--

1. For information.

(1) What little hopes they have to get to heaven who are not like Christ.

(a) In holiness.

(b) In patience and courage under sufferings.

(2) How we should know whether we have the true holiness, viz., when we are such as Christ was in the world. Some content themselves that they are not as other men (Luk_18:11). It is a sorry plea, when we have nothing to bear up our confidence but the badness of others. Others look no higher than the people who are in reputation for goodness among whom they live; whereas we are to be holy as He is holy (1Pe_1:15; 1Jn_3:3).

2. For direction. Now for directions.

(1) The foundation is laid in the new birth. The Son of God was conceived by the operation of the Holy Ghost; so are we born of water and the Spirit.

(2) When we are dedicated to God, the Holy Ghost is the same to Christians that He was to Christ, a guide and comforter.

(3) There is a conformity of life necessary, that we be such as Christ was--

(a) To God, seeking His glory (Joh_8:50); pleasing God (verse 29); obeying His will (Joh_6:38); delighting in converse with Him.

(b) To man, subject to His natural parents (Luk_2:51); to rulers (Mat_17:27); good to all (Act_10:38); humble to inferiors (Joh_13:3-4).

(4) Eye your pattern much (Heb_12:2). Examine what proportion there is between the copy and the transcript.

(5) Shame yourselves for coming short (Heb_3:12-14).

(6) Use the means of communion with Him, especially the Lords Supper. (T. Manton, D.D.)

Conformity to Christ

I. What is that image of His son to which God designs His people shall be conformed? His moral image; it being impossible that any creature, however exalted, can ever possess His natural perfections. God created man in His own image. But, alas! by his fall he lost the image of his Maker. But it is the purpose of God to restore His people to their original rectitude; and in the character of the man Christ Jesus we behold the perfect pattern after which they shall be formed--viz., love to God, benevolence toward man, holiness, etc. Perfect conformity, of course, is not attainable in this world. It is the object of every good mans pursuit, but none reach it till they see the Saviour as He is. There are two things especially which the Holy Spirit does in those who are conformed to the likeness of Christ.

1. He enlightens the understanding to discern the beauties and excellences of the Saviour. Ancient philosophers used to say that if virtue was embodied every one would be in love with her. But every excellence adorned the character of our Lord, yet He was despised and rejected of men. But under the Spirits illumination we shall readily admit that He is fairer than the children of men, chief among ten thousand and altogether lovely.

2. He produces love to those excellences in Christ, which He discovers to the mind. And beholding the glory of Christ, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord.

II. By what means is conformity to Christ promoted?

1. The Scriptures, which portray Christs image.

2. Gospel ordinances, such as preaching and the Lords Supper, and private duties, such as self-examination, prayer, etc.

3. The constant influences of the Holy Spirit.

4. Sanctified afflictions.

III. What ends has God in view in effecting this transformation?

1. To manifest the power and riches of His grace.

2. The honour of Christ. The purchase of His blood shall be presented before the throne, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.

3. The happiness of the saved. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)

True conformity

By the Image of Christ, is here meant the moral character of Christ. And what a character was that! Goethe says, I esteem the four Gospels to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the reflected splendour of a sublimity proceeding from the person of Christ, and of as Divine a kind as was ever manifest upon earth! Rousseau confesses, If the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God. And, to quote only the words of J. S. Mill, Whatever else may be taken from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left a unique figure, not more unlike all His precursors than all His followers: a Divine person, a standard of excellence and a model for imitation; available even to the absolute unbeliever, and can never be lost to humanity. In the entire conformity to the character of Christ, there is--

I. The complete satisfaction of the human soul. In all moral existences there is an ideal character. The cause of moral misery is discordance with this ideal. The character of Christ is this ideal. Souls can conceive and desire nothing higher. Only as men approximate to it they grow in power, rise in dignity, and abound in satisfaction.

II. Harmony with the human race. The human race is sadly divided; it is severed into numerous contending sections. The human house is divided against itself and cannot stand. The human body has not only its limbs amputated, but they are rattling one against the other, and all against itself. It writhes with anguish. A re-union is essential to its health, and peace, and vigour. But what can unite men together? Universal conformity to rituals or doctrines? Such conformity would be no union. Universal conformity to the image of Christ would unite the race. Let all men be Christ-like, and all men will love one another. When all men become Christ-like, and not before then, will all contentions cease, all men embrace each other as brethren and be gathered together in Christ as members to one body directed by one will. If you would divide men, preach doctrines, and policies, and ceremonies. If you would unite them, preach Christ.

III. The grand purpose of the gospel. What is this? To give men theological knowledge and material civilisation? It does this, but does something infinitely grander: it gives men the character of Christ. It is to create us anew in Christ Jesus in good works, and to inspire us with the spirit of Christ, without which we are none of His. Where Christs gospel does not do this, it does nothing. The testing question is--Are we like Christ?

IV. The supreme duty of life. This, the grandest, is also the most practical.

1. We are made by imitation.

2. Christ is the most imitable of all examples--the most--

(1) Admirable;

(2) Transparent;

(3) Unchanging;

(4) Intimate. He is always with us. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Portraits of Christ

There is no surer sign of littleness than slavish imitation; yet this is not the case when the models are perfect. No artist is accused of a want of originality because he studies Greek sculpture or the works of Michael Angelo or of Raphael. It is even so with the imitation of Christ. To imitate other men is weakness; to copy Christ is strength. He who should imitate Him the most nearly, would be the most original man upon earth. If I should exhort you to imitate any one else, I should have a difficult task with sensible men. There is not a single biography about which you could say, I will re-live this mans life precisely as he lived. There is but one model which a man can accept as his copy in every jot and tittle.

I. In what sense is a believer to be conformed to the image of Christ?

1. Negatively.

(1) Not as a penny bears the superscription of the Queen. There is something more required of us than having in some dark corner the name of Jesus tattooed into the skin of our profession.

(2) Nor is a cold morality conformity to the image of Christ. A statue may present the very image of a statesman or warrior, but it is dumb, and blind, and motionless. We are not to be mere dead pictures of Christ; we are to be like Him as living men.

(3) Nor is it enough to act publicly as Christ would have acted. Some are ever asking, Would Christ have done this or that? And then they answer it according to their own fancies. They see some Christian man who is not bound by the touch not, taste not, handle not, of the old Mosaic spirit, and they cry over him, Would Christ have done such a thing? If he laughs or keeps a carriage, Ah, they say, did Christ ever do so? And so they think that by putting on a face that is more marred than that of any man, they shall become the very image of Christ Jesus. You might put on a garment without seam, put sandals on your feet, and you might even ride through the streets of Jerusalem upon a colt the foal of an ass; but this imitation is not to be in mere externals.

2. Positively. We are to be conformed to the image of Christ.

(1) In character.

(a) In humility: though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor.

(b) In diligence: in the Fathers business.

(c) In love.

(d) In devotion and prayerfulness.

But who can describe the whole? We can but say that whereas one man is admirable for his faith, another for his patience, another for his courage, and another for his affection, He is altogether lovely!

(2) In suffering. If we are ever conformed to Christ, we must bear His cross.

(3) In glory. If we be cross bearers we shall be crown wearers.

II. Why should we be transformed as unto the image of Christ? Well may we desire to bear the image of Christ, because--

1. It is that which we lost in Eden. If Eden were a sorrowful loss, and if it be desirable to obtain its paradise again, surely the image of God must be desirable first and foremost of all.

2. It is the ultimate end of Gods decree. I do not read that the saints are predestinated to paradise, but to be conformed to the image of His dear Son, that He may be the first-born among many brethren.

3. It is the Spirits great work in us. When we are regenerated, the new man is put into us; and the new man is renewed in the image of Christ Jesus. The moment that a sinner believes, there is put into him the first germ of a perfect Christ; it needs but that it should be nourished by the Spirit, and it will grow into the perfect stature of a man in Christ.

4. It is our highest glory on earth, and our crowning privilege above. What more glorious for a man than to be like Christ?

III. Is it possible? I have tried, says one, to make myself like Christ, and I cannot. Indeed, thou canst not. This is art which excels all art. Why, the most wondrous painters, who have never failed before, always fail in the portrait of Christ. They cannot paint the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely. Orators, before whose eloquence men have been swayed as the waves are tossed by the wind, have confessed their inability to reach the excellences of Christ. Divinest poets have been compelled to lay down their harps, and relinquish all hope ever to sing the song of songs concerning this fairest Solomon. And must it not be a vastly harder task for a man to be made like Christ? Indeed, if this were our work, it were impracticable, and we might dissuade you from the task. But it is not your work, it is Gods work. It was God who predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son; and God who made the decree will fulfil it Himself. But wherein lies the hardness of our being made like Christ? It lies--

1. In the material to be worked upon. Oh, saith one, there is never a possibility of making an image of Christ out of me. I am but a rough hewn stone of the quarry; friable, unworkable; the chisel will only blunt its edge upon me. But what matters the material when you know the great artificer? To Him all things are possible.

2. In the world we live in. How can I be like Christ? saith another. If you would build a monastery, and let us all live as Christian brethren together, it might be possible; but I have to mix with men that blaspheme; and my business is so trying to the temper. And then our trade has so many temptations in it. We get one touch, as it were, put into the picture on a Sunday, and we think we shall be like Christ one day; but the devil puts six black touches in during the week, and spoils the whole; it is not possible we should ever be like Christ. But God says it shall be done. Of course Satan will do his best to stay Gods decrees; but what shall become of anything that stands in the way of Gods decree?

3. In the perfection of the image. If it were to be like David, Josiah, or some of the ancient saints, I might think it possible; but to be like Christ, who is without spot or blemish, I cannot hope it. It were presumption for such a fallen worm as I, to hope to be like Christ. And did you know it, that while you were thus speaking, you were really getting the thing you thought to be impossible? When you bowed before that image overawed, do you know it was because you began to be made like it? When I come to love the image of Christ, it is because I have some measure of likeness to it. And if you as believers will look much at Christ, you will grow like Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Conformity to Christ

The Christian life is the only life that will ever be completed. Apart from Christ the life of man is a broken pillar, the race of men an unfinished pyramid. One by one in sight of eternity all human ideals fall short, one by one before the open grave all human hopes dissolve. The Laureate sees a moments light in Natures jealousy for the Type; but that, too, vanishes.

So careful of the type, but no

From scarified cliff and quarried stone

She cries, A thousand types are gone;

I care for nothing, all shall go.

All shall go? No; one Type remains. Whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. And when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. (H. Drummond.)

The glorious exemplar

A celebrated philosopher of antiquity, who was nearly contemporary with Christ, but who could have known nothing of what was going on in Judaea, and who, alas! did not always reck his own rede --wrote thus to a younger friend, as a precept for a worthy life: Some good man must be singled out and kept ever before our eyes, that we may live as if he were looking on, and do everything as if he could see it. Let us borrow the spirit, if not the exact letter, of that precept, and address it to our young men. Keep ever in your mind and before your minds eye the loftiest standard of character. You have it, we need not say, supremely and unapproachably, in Him who spake as never young man spake, and lived as never man lived, and who died for the sins of the world. That character stands apart and alone.

The image of Christ

It has been said by some one, suppose the sun in the heavens, which enlightens, warms, and fructifies everything, were a rational being that could see everything within the reach of its beams, it would then behold its own image in every sea, in every river, in every lake, and in every brook--nay, it would even see itself reflected on the loftiest mountains of ice; and would it not, in the abundance of its joy at such glorious radiance, forgetting itself, embrace all these oceans, seas, and rivers, nay, the very glaciers, in its arms, and delight over them? Thus Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, beholds His image and Divine work in every renewed soul as in a polished mirror. (J. Krummacher.)

Likeness to Christ

Upon the occasion of Voltaires visit to England in the last century he became acquainted with the saintly life and devoted labours of Fletcher of Madeley, of whom he remarked, This is the true likeness and character of Jesus Christ.

Gods means of conforming us to Christ

A Christian friend calling upon a poor old woman in Scotland expressed sorrow at seeing her suffer so much pain. Oh, said Jeanie, its just an answer to prayer. Ye see, Ive long prayed to be conformed to the image of Christ; and, since this is the means, Ive naething to do wi the choosin o them. Thats the end I seek. It is ours to aim at meetness for His presence, and to leave it to His wisdom to take His ain way wi us. I would rather suffer than sin any day.

Developing the image

I was in the photographers dark little closet. He had in his hand the little plate of glass that in the camera had been exposed to the light and had caught upon its sensitive surface an image. But there was no appearance of an image. There was nothing but a cloudy surface. If theres an image there? said the photographer, half inquiringly. But it must be developed, he told me. He poured upon a glass the chemical solution, and in a moment what a weird change! Out of the cloud I saw the outlines of a face stealing, breaking its way through all obscuring shadows, growing clearer and clearer, till in a moment the artist took the plate to a window, and there it was most plainly, the picture of a face. Developing the image! I have often thought of it in its spiritual significance. Gods work inhuman souls will vary. In all His children there is the same positive fact of the receiving of Christs image upon the sensitive surface of their hearts. In some that likeness comes at once to the front of a mans life. You see it in the very look. You hear it in the voice. You almost feel it in the grasp of the hand, so warm, true, and sympathising. Best of all you see it in his life, a life flaming in its consecration from the very start. There is Christ, you say. To-day I plead for the souls where a work of grace has begun, and yet it may be very imperfect. You believe something is there, and yet faith may be perplexed at times when it would affirm that work. There are inconsistencies in the life, and you sometimes doubt if the Lords mark is upon the soul. Still you can but feel that the person has come in contact with Christ, has caught His image, and, though that image is under a cloud, it only needs to be developed. I plead for these souls. I ask for patience in their behalf. Let us be willing to wait, just as God waits for the first faint tint of dawn to kindle into the flaming glory of sunrise, for a seed to expand into a shoot, for your soul and mine, so wayward and capricious, to slowly, slowly come round to a place at His feet. Thomas Erskine said, If we are faithful and patient, we shall have the life God taught to us and nourished in us. But we are in such a hurry; we think something must be done immediately. We may apply these wise words to our dealings with others, and so have patience with their imperfections. (E. A. Rand.)

The model and the facsimile

I. The transcendent model. The Word of God declares that all His reconciled children are to be conformed to the image of His Son. The life of Jesus was a plan of God. A sculpture once, on being asked why he smiled on a rough block of marble which was taken into his studio, replied, Because I see an angel in it and I am going to liberate her. Well, when God looked upon us, though we were ugly with sin, yet in the fulness of His love He saw in us the image of His Son. Men sometimes despair of human nature, but our Heavenly Father keeps on working, and in due time His reconciled children shall be conformed to the transcendent Model. The strokes of the spiritual chisel may cut deep at times, but it is a part of the plan to make you perfect. We are not told the features of Gods Son, but of this we may feel assured, that the face of Jesus was lovely. Attracted by the love which shone in His face, little children climbed His knee, and fallen men and erring women gave up their sins and became His disciples. We are not, however, to be conformed to the image of His face; but to be transformed to the spirit of His life. The same rudder that directed the spirit which made His life Divine is also to directs ours. Consider--

1. His perfect life. We cannot suggest the least improvement in it, and there are no flaws or stains to wish to betaken away.

2. His submission to the will of God.

3. His true worship of God. His life was one psalm of the love of God.

4. His consecration to God.

5. His unselfishness. Though He was rich, for our sakes He became poor.

6. His cross. We have never heard of any but Jesus who was willing not only to bear the penalty of others, but the guilt of their sins?

II. The inestimable privilege of being conformed to the image of Christ. When He was transfigured, He was so surpassingly beautiful that the disciples cried, Master, it is good for us to be here! When the sun goes down on a dark and dull evening, it sometimes lights up the clouds just above your head, and makes them golden with beauty. It is like the time when Stephen the martyr was being stoned to death. While he knelt on the ground, he looked up into the heavens and cried, I see Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And the light from heaven shone with such splendour upon his face that it was like that of an angel. And when we see Jesus, we shall be like Him. We shall not be made into His image like--

1. A picture, which a painter desires above all things be placed in a right light. Some people can only exhibit holy charity in the house of prayer; but the reconciled children of God are to be conformed to the image of Jesus on the Exchange, in the factory, and the street. We do not need to be put into a particular light.

2. A statue. When we look at the figure of Wellington, who can imagine that grim statue ever crying, Up Guards, and at em? We are to have life and vigour.

3. An actor, when he is on the stage, feels for the moment that he is really the man he is representing; but eventually goes home a common man. But the true Christian does not wear a seamless robe and sandals; he is a living embodiment of Christ. (W. Birch.)

The true ideal of manhood

I. Christ is the grand ideal of manhood. The image of His Son. Not the corporeal nor the mental image, but the moral character. This is--

1. A perfect ideal.

(1) He was without blemish. He did no sin. His judge could find no fault in Him; and He challenged His enemies to convince Him of sin.

(2) He possessed every virtue, grace, lofty aspiration. There have been men who have had many virtues, but they have been associated with many salient imperfections. Socrates, a model in some respects, was so inconsistent that, having spent his life in exposing popular superstitions, his last request was that a bird might be sacrificed to Esculapius. Cicero and Seneca had many virtues; but the one was infected with vanity, and the other was mean-spirited and greedy to a fault. So with the best of the old Hebrew men; and even apostles had their faults. But you cannot put your hand on a single flaw in Christs character, nor point to an excellence that did not dwell in Him.

(3) Not only had He all virtues, but all His virtues were harmonious. There is in Him an exquisite balancing of the passive and the active, the masculine and the feminine virtues. He is indignant, but never boisterous; tender, but never weak; resolute, but never obstinate; condescending, but never familiar.

2. It is a soul-approving Ideal. By the laws of mans moral constitution he is bound to approve of this Ideal. A man wants a mansion; the architect gives him a plan so accordant with his own taste that he is bound to accept it. Another man wants something cut in marble; the sculptor presents an object that comes up to his loftiest ideas, and he is bound to accept it. So man wants a model character; and God gives him an Ideal that meets his highest conceptions of the morally beautiful, and he is bound to accept Him. And all men alike. There are ideals in architecture, painting, poetry, costume, which some may admire, but others loathe. But here is an Ideal that commends itself to the deepest soul of every man. It fits every soul--no soul too small for it, no one too large. It is literally the Desire of all nations, that for which humanity has been hungering through all ages and lands.

3. It is a universally attainable Ideal. A man may give an ideal of painting, and to practical men, and they may say it is too difficult to work out; but not so with this Ideal of character. The most imitable character is that which is--

(1) The most admirable. We imitate only what we admire.

(2) The most transparent. There are characters so misty that you cannot discern the principles that rule them; these you cannot imitate.

(3) The most unchangeable. A fickle character would be beyond your imitation. Christ answers in the highest degree all these conditions.

II. Mans conformity to this ideal is Gods predestination. Whom did He foreknow? Not some men, but all men; not some things, but all things. The idea is, that all the men He foreknew He ordained to have one grand Ideal of character to aim at and to conform to. God has predestinated that all men, to have health, must attend to certain conditions; that all men shall commence their existence in infancy, shall go on through the various stages, and in the end go back to dust. And likewise God has foreordained that all men shall form their character after the Ideal of excellence embodied in Christ. This is the grand purpose of God in relation to humanity. Conclusion: Learn from this--

1. The transcendent value of the four Gospels. In other parts of the Bible you are brought into the presence of legislators, historians, prophets, apostles. But here you are brought into the presence of Christ Himself. Elsewhere you have scattered star-beams; but here you have the Sun Himself.

2. The grand work of the Christian preacher. To exhibit Christ, who is the Chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely, and to urge men to love Him. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

God, in the moral restoration of man

This passage has been the battleground of Calvinism and Arminianism. The best way to get a clear idea of such controverted passages, is to ignore the conflicting opinions that they have started, and study them in the light of common sense, the light of their context, the light of the general scope of biblical teaching, and in humble dependence upon the Spirit for help. If we look at these verses in this way we shall see nothing that is not found in connection with every other Divine operation. Any work which an intelligent being has accomplished--whether it be in husbandry, architecture, legislation, or science--always implies an executive agency, a presiding plan, and a previous knowledge on which the plan is based. These three things we have in the text concerning God, in the work of mans restoration. The result comes out of the agency; the agency comes out of the plan; the plan comes out of a previous knowledge. We infer--

I. That mans restoration is the result of Gods agency. God--

1. Calls--

(1) By the admonitions of conscience;

(2) By the events of history;

(3) By the ministry of His word;

(4) By the strivings of His Spirit. He calls sometimes through the thundering voice of law, and sometimes through the melting accents of love.

2. Justifies. Justification is a forensic term, but it does not convey forensic ideas. An accused person in the court of human judicature is justified when the verdict of Not guilty is returned; and he may be pronounced Not guilty on three different grounds--

(1) Actual innocence.

(2) Regretted accident. He might have committed the act, but contrary to wish.

(3) Judicial ignorance, or failure on the part of the judge and jury to get at all the evidence. But no man, before God, could be pronounced Not guilty on any of these grounds. All that evangelical justification means is, that God treats the guilty as if they had never sinned--overlooking the past.

3. Glorifies. Mans body, intellect, character, and condition, are now inglorious. God will glorify the whole. We shall be like Him.

II. That Gods agency is governed by a plan. Some beings act from instinct, impulse, habit; but God acts from plan.

1. What is this plan? It is to save men.

(1) By assimilating them to the image of Christ. He also did predestinate, etc.; that they should be governed by the same principles that govern Him; animated by His Spirit; consecrated to the same great cause for which He gave His life.

(2) By subjugating them to the authority of Christ. That He might be the first-born among many brethren!

2. Now, Paul would have referred Gods agency in any other department to an eternal plan. As a pious man, he would refer everything that was good to God; and as an intelligent man, he would refer everything to the plan of God. Had he been writing on agriculture, he would have traced every blade and flower and plant that grew to the predestination of God. But he was writing of mans salvation, and it was only to his purpose to refer it to predestination in connection with that. Predestination is not a dream of the schoolmen, or a dogma of Calvin, but an eternal law of the universe.

III. That Gods plan is founded on a thorough foreknowledge of the saved. Whom He did foreknow does not refer to all creatures, although God does foreknow all creatures. Nor does it refer to mankind in general, although God does foreknow all that shall happen to all men. But it refers to those spoken of in the preceding verse, and the whole chapter, as loving Him, as being His sons, etc. Note, in relation to this foreknowledge--

(1) That it does not interfere with the free agency of the good. A. might have such a thorough knowledge of B.s temperament and tendencies, that he might predict with certainty that B. would, under certain circumstances, adopt a certain line of action; yet if B. knew not the knowledge of A., he could not by any possibility have any influence upon his conduct. The fact, in like manner, that God knows all about me, all that I shall ever do, has no necessary influence upon my line of action. The conduct of the Jews at the crucifixion of Christ is an illustration.

(2) That it is a ground of security for the good. We often form plans from partial knowledge, and no sooner endeavour to carry them out than circumstances, never foreseen, baffle us; so that we are obliged to abandon our projects. But not so with God. His plan is based upon a thorough knowledge of all future contingencies. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 8:29. For whom he did foreknow — As truly repenting, believing, and obeying the gospel; he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his Son — That is, it was his foreappointment, or predetermination, will, and pleasure, that as Christ was, they should be in this world, 1Jn 4:17, namely, holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, Heb 7:26; that they should have in them the mind that was in him, and should walk as he walked. But the word προοριζω, is literally, prius definio, to define, or describe beforehand; and may be understood of God’s foretelling, by the Old Testament prophets, that the disciples of the Messiah, when he came, should resemble him, and of their describing them as persons conformed to him. Thus interpreted, the meaning of the verse will be, Whom he foreknew he also described beforehand, as being conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren — That is, the head and captain of all the adopted children of God, among whom he will for ever shine, distinguished from them all in rays of peculiar glory. Observe, reader, a conformity to Christ’s image in spirit and conduct, is the mark of all those who are foreknown, and will be glorified.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL NOTES

Rom_8:29.—Foreknowledge communicates the strength of grace to those to whom it refers.

Rom_8:30. Called.—The cause of it God’s love, the act of calling; the effect, bestowal of blessings.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_8:29-31

The unseen and the seen.—The believer who has fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before him has strong consolation. St. Paul looks both before and behind: he looks behind to a past eternity, and before to a coming eternity, if to the word may be applied before and after and behind. Eternity and time are conjoined in the believer’s welfare. He is thus a creature of large surroundings. St. Paul seeks to inspire all believers with holy confidence. This confidence is begotten by a contemplation of:—

I. The things that are unseen.—“Foreknow,” foreordained. Accurately speaking, the words “before” and “behind” cannot be applied to Him who is from everlasting to everlasting, who dwells in one eternal now. What it is for a God to foreknow we cannot tell. Can time words and time processes be applied to eternal conditions? Thus are suggested the limitation of human thought and the inadequacy of human language. How glibly we speak and write about divine foreknowledge and foreordination; and yet with what humble reverence should we tread the sacred ground! We can only tunnel through the mountains and find ourselves in darkness. Our rushlights cannot reveal the rich treasures and glorious mysteries. Whatever the words mean, they must mean a richness of divine love and wisdom beyond our conception. Let the words thus speak to our inmost hearts and beget sweet confidence.

II. The things that are unseen working in the seen.—Foreknowledge and foreordination are the precedents. Calling, justification, glorification, are the consequents. The precedents are unseen, unknown; the consequents are seen, are known. With the inner eye we see the divine processes working in the human soul. We are not called upon to stand in a past eternity and read the divine decrees. Paul’s wisdom is vaster than ours, and he leaves the fores in a sweet vagueness. Are we called? Are we justified? Are the processes of life plainly tending to our glorification? Then let us have holy confidence; let us rejoice in the mercy and leave the mystery.

III. The revealed purpose.—That Christ might have a position of dignity; that all God’s redeemed might have outward and inward grandeur. The position of dignity the firstborn of many noble brethren. These conformed to the moral image. If with the freedom of some we applied human words to the divine, we may say that God had a lofty ideal for humanity. That ideal was the human-divine Man who for a short space glorified Palestine. In Christ’s earthly life, in its moral purity and glory, we read the divine ideal set forth in the revealed purpose of God. Christ begets confidence and inspires manhood.

IV. The revealed purpose fulfilled in part.—The actuals have not reached the ideal; but there have been some wonderful accomplishments. How marvellously near St. Paul himself came to the perfect image of God’s Son! In the modern Church how marvellously near was the sainted Fletcher of Madeley! Many Christlikenesses are walking the earth to-day, but our vision is so imperfect that we cannot see the close resemblances. Are we being transformed and conformed? Are Christlike lineaments being drawn in our moral natures? Is the evil being eliminated? Is the good getting universally prevalent? Is the divine hand shaping our moral nature? Is there the foretaste and pledge of glorification? Then the triumphant challenge, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” What a large if! It rises beyond the bounds of the material universe; it touches Omnipotence. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Who can wage successful war against the Omnipotent? Who can confute Omniscience? If we did not know better, we might suppose that some moderns were the omniscients, while God was only in mental darkness. Creatures of a day presume to teach Him who inhabits eternity. The irony of the position! Do angels smile at human folly? Angelic pity checks the tendency. But why should we start and tremble for the ark of God? There should be no nervous worry about him who can sing, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

True conformity.—By the “image” of Christ is here meant the “moral character” of Christ. And what a character was that! Goethe says, “I esteem the four gospels to be thoroughly genuine, for there shines forth from them the reflected splendour of a sublimity proceeding from the person of Christ, and of as divine a kind as was ever manifested upon earth.” Rousseau confesses, “If again the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God.” And, to quote only the words of a more recent witness, who can be charged neither with intellectual deficiency nor with excess of religious sympathy—the late Mr. Mill—“Whatever else may be taken from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left a unique figure, not more unlike all His precursors than all His followers—a divine person, a standard of excellence and a-model for imitation, available even to the absolute unbeliever, and can never be lost to humanity.” In the entire conformity to the character of Christ there is;—

I. The complete satisfaction of the human soul.—In all moral existences there is an ideal character; a felt disagreement to this ideal is moral misery—agreement is alone moral satisfaction. The cause of all the moral misery in human souls is conscious discordance with this ideal. The character of Christ is this ideal. Souls can conceive of nothing higher, can desire nothing higher. They feel that if they live up to it, they shall be filled with all joy and peace. Only as men approximate to this ideal they grow in power, rise in dignity, and abound in satisfaction. Thank God that we have this ideal so exquisitely and fully wrought out in the life of Jesus Christ. He was incarnate virtue.

II. Harmony with the human race.—The human race is sadly divided; it is severed into numerous contending sections. The human house is divided against itself and cannot stand. The human body has not only its limbs amputated, but they are rattling one against another, and all against itself. It writhes with anguish. A reunion is essential to its health and peace and vigour. But what can unite men together? Universal conformity to rituals or doctrines, to political and ecclesiastical standards? Such conformity would be no union. Universal conformity to the image of Christ would unite the race. Let all men be Christlike, and all men will love one another. When all men become Christlike, and not before then, will hostile passions cease to flow, bloody wars terminate, all contentions cease, all men embrace each other as brethren and be “gathered together” in Christ as members to one body directed by one will. If you would divide men, preach doctrines and policies and ceremonies. If you would unite them, preach Christ and the moral grandeur of His character.

III. The grand purpose of the gospel.—What is the grand aim of the gospel? To give men theological knowledge and material civilisation? No; it does this, but does something infinitely grander—it gives men the character of Christ. It is to create us anew in Christ Jesus in good works. It is to inspire us with the Spirit of Christ, without which we are none of His. “Follow thou Me.” This is the burden of the whole gospel. Where the gospel does not do this for man, it does nothing of any lasting value; where it does this, it does everything. Are we like Christ? This is the testing question.

IV. The supreme duty of life.—What is our supreme duty? Assimilation to Christ. This, the grandest duty, is the most practical.

1. We are made by imitation.

2. Christ is the most imitable of all examples.

(1) The most admirable;

(2) the most transparent;

(3) the most unchanging;

(4) the most intimate. He is always with us—in the lives of good men, in the writings of true books, in the records of the evangelists, in the pulsations of conscience, in the influences of Providence.—Homilist.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom_8:29-31

God for us.—“If God be for us, who can be against us?” Here is first a ground laid, and then a comfort built upon it. The ground that is laid is, “If God be with us.” When he saith, “If God be with us,” he doth not put the case, but lays it as a ground. “If God be with us,” as indeed He is with all His, in electing them, in calling them, in working all for their good, in glorifying them after, etc.—“if God be with us,” as He is, then this comfort is built upon this ground: “Who shall or can be against us?” For the first the ground that is laid is, that God is with His children. Indeed, He is with the whole world—He is everywhere; but He is with His Church and children in a more peculiar manner. The soul is spread in the whole body, but it is in the brain after another manner, as it understands and reasons. God is everywhere; but He is not everywhere comforting and directing and sanctifying, nor everywhere giving a sweet and blessed issue. God gives Himself variety of names, as there are variety of our distresses. Are we in misery? God is a rock, a shield, a tower of defence, a buckler—He is all that can be said for comfort. He is with us in His attributes and sweet relations, and all sweet terms that may support our faith, that whatsoever we see comfortable in the creature we may rise more comfortably to God, and say, God is my rock and shield, and my light and defence. And then God is with us in every condition and in every place whatsoever. He is not only a God of the mountains and not of the valleys, or a God of the valleys and not of the mountains, as those foolish people thought (1Ki_20:28), but He is in all places and at all times with His. If they be in prison, He goes with them (Act_16:22, seq.); he made the prison a kind of paradise, a heaven. In all our affairs whatsoever God is with us. “Fear not,” Joshua; “fear not,” Moses. What was the ground of their comfort? “I will be with thee.” He was with St. Paul in all conditions; therefore He bids him “fear not.” The ground of all is His free love in Christ. Christ was God with us first. God, that He might be with us, ordained that Christ should be God with us—“Emmanuel,” that He should take our nature into unity of person with Himself. Christ being God with us, that He might satisfy the just wrath of God for our sins, and so reconcile God and us together, He hath made God and us friends. So that this, that God is with us, it is grounded upon an excellent and sound bottom—upon the incarnation of our blessed Saviour. “Who shall be against us?” It is not a question of doubting, or inquisition to learn anything, but it is a question of triumph. He doth, as it were, cast a bank, and bid defiance to all enemies whatsoever. “Who shall be against us?” Let them stand out, Satan and the world, and all Satan’s supports; let them do their worst. There is a strange confidence which is seated in the hearts of God’s children that they dare thus dare hell and earth and all infernal; they set God so high in their hearts that they dare say, with a spirit of confidence, “Who shall be against us?” First of all you see, then, that the state of a Christian in this world is an impregnable state and a glorious condition. Here is glory upon glory, from this clause to the end of the chapter: “If God be with us, who shall be against us?” If God gave His Son for us, shall He not with Him give us all things else? There is another glorious speech: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s people?” Another glorious, triumphant speech: “Who shall separate us from the love of God” founded in Christ? He loves Christ first and us in Christ as members; and as He loves Him eternally, so He loves us eternally too. Therefore, you see, every way the state of a Christian is a glorious condition. Here is a ground likewise of all contentment in any condition in the world. What can be sufficient to him that God cannot suffice? God, all-sufficient, is with thee; thou canst want nothing that is for thy good. Thou mayst want this and that, but it is for thy good that wantest it: those that fear God shall want nothing that is good. God is fitted for us, and we for Him. He can fill up every corner of the soul; He is larger than our souls: therefore let us be content in what condition soever we are in. God is with us.—Sibbes.

Prescience extendeth unto all things, but causeth nothing.—Predestination to life, although it be infinitely ancientor than the actual work of creation, doth notwithstanding presuppose the purpose of creation; because, in the order of our consideration and knowledge, it must first have being that shall have a happy being Whatsoever the purpose of creation therefore doth establish, the same by the purpose of predestination may be perfected, but in no case disannulled and taken away. Seeing, then, the natural freedom of man’s will was contained in the purpose of creating man (for this freedom is a part of man’s nature), grace contained under the purpose of predestinating man may perfect and doth, but cannot possibly destroy, the liberty of man’s will. That which hath wounded and overthrown the liberty wherein man was created as able to do good as evil is only our original sin, which God did not predestinate, but He foresaw it, and predestinated grace to serve as a remedy. Freedom of operation we have by nature, but the ability of virtuous operation by grace, because through sin our nature hath taken that disease and weakness whereby of itself it inclineth only unto evil. The natural powers and faculties therefore of man’s mind are, through our native corruption, so weakened, and of themselves so averse from God, that without the influence of His special grace they bring forth nothing in His sight acceptable; no, not the blossoms or least buds that tend to the fruit of eternal life. Which powers and faculties notwithstanding retain still their natural manner of operation, although their original perfection be gone; man hath still a reasonable understanding, and a will thereby framable to good things, but is not thereunto now able to frame himself. Therefore God hath ordained grace to countervail this our imbecility, and to serve as His hand, that thereby we, which cannot move ourselves, may be drawn, but amiably drawn. If the grace of God did enforce men to goodness, nothing would be more unpleasant unto man than virtue; whereas contrariwise there is nothing so full of joy and consolation as the conscience of well-doing.—Hooker.

Object of predestination.—The object of predestination is glory: I see thee believing; I will therefore that thou be glorified like My Son. Such is the meaning of the decree. The predestination of which Paul speaks is not a predestination to faith, but a predestination to glory, founded on the prevision of faith. Faith is in a sense the work of God; but it contains a factor, in virtue of which it reacts on God, as an object reacts on the mind which takes cognisance of it—this is the free adherence of man to the solicitation of God. Here is the element which distinguishes the act of foreknowledge from that of predestination, and because of which the former logically precedes the latter.—Godet.

Christ the firstborn.—God set up Christ as the great standard or standing copy, according to which all believers should be framed and wrought just like Him: “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.” To the image of His Son; not to the image of the most glorious man that ever was in the world. Not to Enoch, that signal walker with God; nor Noah, the only loyal preacher of righteousness in his time; nor Abraham, God’s friend and the believer’s father; but His own Son, who was free from all taint of sin. As His perfect purity made Him fit to be a sacrifice to take away sin (1Jn_3:5); to be an advocate to plead against sin, “Jesus Christ the righteous” (1Jn_2:1),—so also to be the idea according to which all believers should be framed. Now the weakest habitual grace is an inchoative conformity to Christ as well as the strongest, and as well as that which is perfected in heaven, and hath in its own nature all the parts of that grace which is in Christ—as an infant in his body hath the lineaments of his father, as well as the grown son.—Charnock.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 8

Rom_8:31. Luther’s faith.—And for the time to come let us trust in God, that God will be with us if we be with Him, and stick to Him. Who then shall be against us? Let the devil, and Rome, and hell be all against us if God be with us. Bellarmine goes about to prove Luther a false prophet. Luther, as he was a courageous man and had a great and mighty spirit of faith and prayer, so his expressions were suitable to his spirit. What saith he? The cause that I defend is Christ’s and God’s cause, and all the world shall not stand against it. It shall prevail. If there be a counsel in earth, there is a counsel in heaven that will disappoint all. God laughs in heaven at His enemies; and shall we weep? And things are in a good way if we can go on and help the cause of God with our prayers and faith that God will go on, and with our cheerfulness and joy that God may delight to go on with His own cause. We may encourage ourselves; though perhaps we shall not see the issue of these things, yet posterity shall see it.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 8:29. Προέγνω) He foreknew. Hafenreffer translates it—He formerly acknowledged. πρόθεσις, the purpose, comprehends πρόγνωσιν, foreknowledge, and προορισμὸν, predestination, for calling is annexed both to the former (πρόθεσις) and to the two latter (πρόγνωσις and προορισμός), Rom 8:28-30; Eph 1:9, where however θέλημα, His will, is in a more extensive sense, than predestination, and assuredly predestination accompanies foreknowledge, for foreknowledge takes away rejection or reprobation [casting away]: ch. Rom 11:2. Moreover reprobation [casting away] and predestination are opposed to each other.—προώρισε, συμμόρφους, predestined, (to be) conformed) He declares, who they are, whom He foreknew, namely, those who are conformed. This is the character of those [impress of God’s seal on those: referring to seal, 2Ti 2:19], who were foreknown and are to be glorified, 2Ti 2:19; Php 3:10; Php 3:21.—τῆς εἰκόνος, to the image) construed with συμμόρφους, although σύμμορφον, Php 3:10, governs the dative. Here it has more the power of a substantive with [followed by] the genitive. This likeness [conformity to His Son’s likeness] constitutes the very adoption of sons itself, not the cross or glory; for this [the glory] follows only after [not till after] justification; concerning which, see Rom 8:30: but they who are the sons of God are the brethren of Christ [at an earlier stage in the successive links, viz. Rom 8:29]. Conformity to His cross or His glory is the consequence that follows in the train of conformity to the Son of God, Gal 4:19. So Eph 1:5, predestinating us unto the adoption of sons (children).—εἰς τὸ) The cause, why predestination is conjoined with foreknowledge, namely, Christ ought to have many brethren; but this multitude of brethren would fail, or at least would be diminished, if there were foreknowledge without predestination. Predestination overcomes everything that obstructs the salvation of believers, and changes adversity into prosperity.—εἶναι) that He might be, and might be seen to be.—πρωτότοκον, the first-born) The glorious resurrection of Christ, and of believers, is itself a kind of generation [the regeneration], Mat 19:28.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_8:29-30. More detailed development and expression of τοῖς κ. πρόθ. κλ. οὖσιν,as a continued confirmation of the οἴδαμεν, ὅτι κ.τ.λ. For this divine plan of salvation advancing from the πρόθεσις to the πλῆσις, leads the Christian safely and surely to the δόξα; hence it is not conceivable that anything whatever, in opposition to this plan, should exercise other than a beneficial influence upon them (Rom_8:31 ff.).

προέγνω] foreknew, namely, as those who should one day, in the way of the divine plan of salvation, become σύμμορφοι τῆς εἰκόνος τ. υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ. That this character, in which they were foreknown by God, presupposes the subjection to faith (the ὑπακοὴ πίστεως Rom_1:5), was self-evident to the Christian reader. Erasmus aptly remarks: Non temere elegit Deus quos elegit, novit suos multo antequam vocaret. The text merely gives the terminus of the ΠΡΟ in ΠΡΟΈΓΝΩ and ΠΡΟΏΡΙΣΕ quite indefinitely, namely: before their calling. More precise definitions, therefore (e.g. that of Tholuck: before the foundation of the world, though in itself correct, Eph_1:4; Eph_3:11), should not be here given. The taking of the πνοέγνω in the sense of prescience, demanded by the signification of the word, has been followed (though with various, and in part very arbitrary, attempts to supply that, as which the persons concerned were foreknown by God) by Origen, Chrysostom, Augustine, Ambrosiaster, Jerome, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Erasmus, Paraphr., Toletus, Calovius, and others, including Reiche, Neander, Tholuck, Reithmayr, Maier, Philippi, van Hengel, Hahn, Ewald, Weiss, and others. The question whether this exposition or the other of the pre-election (Calvin and others, including Rückert, Usteri, Köllner, de Wette, Fritzsche, Krehl, Baumgarten-Crusius, and Lamping), is the true one, cannot be got rid of by mixing up the two conceptions (Umbreit); nor is it to be decided by dogmatic presuppositions, but simply by the usage of the language, in accordance with which προγ. never in the N. T. (not even in Rom_11:2, 1Pe_1:20) means anything else than to know before-hand (Act_26:5; 2Pe_3:17; Jdt_9:6; Wis_6:13; Wis_8:8; Wis_18:6). Comp. Philippi in loc., and his Glaubenslehre, IV. 1, p. 117 ff., ed. 2. That in classic usage it ever means anything else, cannot be at all proved. See, on the contrary, Hom. Cer. 258; Xen. Ap. 30; Plat. Rep. p. 426 C; Theaet. p. 203 D; Tim. p. 70 C; Eur. Hipp. 1072; Dem. 861. 13; Lucian, Prom. 20. Comp. also πρόγνωσις and ΠΡΟΓΝΩΣΤΙΚΌς. An appeal is made to the familiar use of ΓΙΝΏΣΚ. in the sense of judicial cognizance, or even of other resolutions and decisions (Herod. iv. 25, i. 74, 78; Thuc. iv. 30, iii. 99, and many other instances). But, in the first place, it is never in this sense joined with the accusative of the person without an infinitive; and secondly, there is no such precedent of usage for the compound προγινώσκειν, current as it was in Greek authors; for the few passages in which it means to take forethought about something (Thuc. ii. 64. 5; Xen. Cyr. ii. 4. 11, with a very doubtful reading) are not suitable for comparison, either as regards the sense, or as respects the union with the personal accusative in our passage. The incorrectness of this explanation is confirmed, moreover, by the analogy of the following clauses, which always add another and different idea to the one preceding. The right interpretation remains, therefore: praecognovit (Vulg. = praescivit), which, however, is neither to be altered, with Augustine, Vatablus, Grotius, Estius, and others, into approbavit jam ante, to which view also Tholuck and Rückert incline (see on Rom_7:15); nor to be taken, with Hofmann, in that sense of γινώσκειν which obtains in 1Co_8:3; 1Co_13:12, Gal_4:9, 2Ti_2:19 (an appropriating cognizance of what is akin and homogeneous, according to Hofmann). The latter, to which also Delitzsch ultimately comes, Psychol. p. 39, is incorrect, because in accordance with it the πρόγνωσις would be a relation of communion already entered into actively by God, which would necessarily include the προορισμός, and consequently exclude the latter as a special and accessory act. For to suppose that Paul, with προέγνω and προώρισε, does not mean two acts following each other in succession, but asserts the former of the persons, and the latter of the character ascribed to them (Hofmann), is wholly groundless in presence of the clearly progressive description of the apostle. The right view, since faith is the subjective ground of salvation, is that held by Calovius and our older dogmatists: quos credituros praevidit vel suscepturos vocationem. It is Gods being aware in His plan, by means of which, before the subjects are destined by Him to salvation, He knows whom He has to destine thereto. Comp. on Rom_11:2.

καὶ προώρισε] them He destined also beforehand. To what? συμμόρφ. τῆς εἰκ. τ. υἱ. αὐτ.: to be conformed to the image of His Son, i.e. to be such as should present the image of His Son in their conformation. From the following εἰς τὸ εἶναι κ.τ.λ. it is plain that Paul here means the same which in Rom_8:23 he has designated as υἱοθεσίαν, τὴν ἀπολύτρωσιν τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν, consequently the glory to which God has predestined them, the state of the μέλλουσα δόξα (Rom_8:18), so far as this shall be the same (even in respect of the glorified body, Php_3:21, 1Co_15:49) as that which the exalted Christ has. Comp. 2Co_3:18, 1Jn_3:2. The fellowship in suffering (Calvin, Grotius, Calovius, and others) is here remote. What Paul has in view must be the same as he denotes in Rom_8:30 by ἐδόξασε, consequently the conformitas gloriae. This very thought of the entire glorious appearance, which he means, has suggested the vivid expression συμμόρφ. τ. εἰκόνος; wherefore we are not, with Chrysostom (ὅπερ γὰρ ὁ μονογενὴς ἦν φύσει, τοῦτο καὶ αὐτοὶ γεγόνασι κατὰ χάριν), Theophylact, Bengel, and others, to refer it to the present υἱοθεσία. Theodoret has the right view. The conformity of the inner being is not conveyed in the expression (Hofmann understands it as included), but is the moral presupposition of the glory meant.

σύμμορφος (Lucian, Amor. 39), in Php_3:21 with the dative, here with the genitive. See Bernhardy, p. 171; Kühner, II. 1, p. 295.

εἰς τὸ εἶναι κ.τ.λ.] Not an inferential clause (see on Rom_1:20), butas the very notion of προώρ. embraces the purposethe final aim of προώρ. συμμόρφ. Nor is the main thought contained in ἐν πολλ. ἀδελφ., as de Wette very arbitrarily supposes; but, on the contrary, Paul contemplates Christ as the One, to whom the divine decree referred as to its final aim. Christ was to fulfil His lofty commission not merely by standing in the relation of His glory to the Father as the μονογενής, but by being the First-born among many brethren, i.e. among many who through Him, the essential and primordial Son of God, should, as adopted υἱοὶ Θεοῦ, and consequently in so far as His brethren, have attained to the same δόξα of sharing the possession of the dignity and privilege (Col_1:18) of the First-born. Comp. also Heb_1:6, and Lünemann in loc.

ἐκάλεσε] Like κλητοῖς in Rom_8:28. For those who despised the invitation to salvation conveyed to them through the preachers of the gospel did not belong to the called, whom God προέγνω and προώρισε; the following τούτους κ. ἐδικ. also presupposes that the calling has been attended with the result of the ὑπακοὴ πίστεως. Comp. on Rom_8:28. Hence the divine saving grace is to be conceived as working by means of the word on those who become called, namely, in opening and preparing the heart for the reception of the word, Act_16:14; Php_1:6; Php_1:29; Joh_6:44. God has fore-known those who would not oppose to His gracious calling the resistance of unbelief, but would follow its drawing; thereafter He has fore-ordained them to eternal salvation; and when the time had come for the execution of His saving counsel, has called them, etc. (Rom_8:30). With the κλῆσις begins the execution of the προορισμός in accordance with the πρόγνωσις; and the subjects concerned are, in contrast to the multitude standing outside of this divine process of salvation, the ἐκλεκτοί (Rom_8:33).

ἐδικαίωσεν] Justification is consequently the sole ground of the glorifying; sanctification is added to it, in order that the justified may attain that goal in the way that God desires.

ἐδόξασε] Justification, as a divine act of imputation, is really (not merely ideally or in principle, in opposition to Lipsius, Rechtfert. p. 48 f.) accomplished; but the glorification falls to the future (Rom_8:21; Rom_5:2, and constantly in N. T.; comp. also 1Co_2:7, Rom_9:23). Notwithstanding, the aorist neither stands for the future nor for the present (in opposition to Köllner; see Herm. ad Viger. p. 746); nor does it express anywhere in the N. T. a habit, as Flatt thinksagainst which view, in the present instance, the analogy of the preceding aorists is decisive; but it represents the de facto certainly future glorification as so necessary and certain, that it appears as if already given and completed with the ἐδικαίωσεν. Whom He has justified, them He hasviewing the relation from its final aimtherewith also glorified. See Herm. ad Viger. p. 747; Kühner, II. 1, p. 142. In order thus to place the glorification on the same platform of certainty with the προέγνω, προώρισε, ἐκάλεσε, and ἐδικ., Paul selected the proleptic aorist. On the other hand, the triumphant flow of the great chain of thought and the thoroughly Pauline boldness of expression (comp. on Eph_2:5) are misapprehended, if the act be regarded as accomplished only in the decree of God (Grotius, Reiche, and Umbreit); or if the expression be referred to the glory of God possessed at first only inwardly and secretly (Hofmann), or to repute with God (Märcker), or to the bestowal of grace and υἱοθεσία here below (Chrysostom and his followers, Ambrosiaster, Pelagius, and Erasmus), to which also van Hengel adheres, appealing to Joh_12:28.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom 8:29 f. These verses give the proof that God in all things co-operates for good with the called. They show how His gracious purpose, beginning with foreknowledge and foreordination perfects all that concerns them on to the final glory. οὓς προέγνω : those whom He foreknew in what sense? as persons who would answer His love with love? This is at least irrelevant, and alien to Paul’s general mode of thought. That salvation begins with God, and begins in eternity, are fundamental ideas with him, which he here applies to Christians, without raising any of the problems involved in the relation of the human will to the Divine. He comes upon these in chap. 9, but not here. Yet we may be sure that προέγνω has the pregnant sense that γιγνώσκω ( יָדַע ) often has in Scripture: e.g. , in Psa 1:6 , Amo 3:2 : hence we may render, “those of whom God took knowledge from eternity” (Eph 1:4 ). καὶ προώρισεν κ . τ . λ ., “he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son”. This conformity is the last stage in salvation, as προέγνω is the first. The image is in import not merely spiritual but eschatological. The Son of God is the Lord who appeared to Paul by Damascus: to be conformed to His image is to share His glory as well as His holiness. The Pauline Gospel is hopelessly distorted when this is forgotten. εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν πρωτότοκον ἐν πολλοῖς ἀδελφοῖς : the end in all this is the exaltation of Christ. It is implied in πρωτότοκον that He also is regarded as only having attained the fulness of His Son-ship through the resurrection ( cf. Rom 1:4 , and Col 1:18 πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν ). The idea of Christ’s dignity as firstborn among many brethren who all owe their salvation to Him is sublimely interpreted in Heb 2:10-13 . The Apostle now resumes the series of the Divine acts in our salvation. οὓς δὲ προώρισεν , τούτους καὶ ἐκάλεσεν . The eternal foreordination appears in time as “calling,” of course as effectual calling: where salvation is contemplated as the work of God alone (as here) there can be no breakdown in its processes. The next stages are summarily indicated. ἐδικαίωσεν : God in Jesus Christ forgave our sins, and accepted us as righteous in His sight; ungodly as we had been, He put us right with Himself. In that, everything else is included. The whole argument of chaps. 6 8 has been that justification and the new life of holiness in the Spirit are inseparable experiences. Hence Paul can take one step to the end, and write οὓς δὲ ἐδικαίωσεν , τούτους καὶ ἐδόξασεν . Yet the tense in the last word is amazing. It is the most daring anticipation of faith that even the N.T. contains: the life is not to be taken out of it by the philosophical consideration that with God there is neither before nor after.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_8:29-39

Analysis

This section contains the exhibition of two additional arguments in favor of the safety of believes. The first of these is founded on the decree or purpose of God, Rom_8:29, Rom_8:30; and the second on his infinite and unchanging love, Rom_8:31-39. In his description of those with regard to whom all things shall work together for good, Paul had just said that they are such who are called or converted in execution of a previous purpose of God, Rom_8:28. If this is the case, the salvation of believers is secure, because the plan on which God acts is connected in all its parts; whom he foreknows, he predestines, calls, justifies, and glorifies. Those, therefore, who are called, shall certainly be saved, Rom_8:29, Rom_8:30. Secondly, if God is for us, who can be against us? If God so loved us as to give his Son for us, he will certainly save us, Rom_8:31, Rom_8:32. This love has already secured our justification, and has made abundant provision for the supply of all our wants, Rom_8:33, Rom_8:34.

The triumphant conclusion from all these arguments, that nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ, but that we shall be more than conquerors over all enemies and difficulties, is given in Rom_8:35-39.

Commentary

Rom_8:29

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, etc. The connection of this verse with the preceding, and the force of for; appears from what has already been said. Believers are called in accordance with a settled plan and purpose of God, for whom he calls he had previously predestined: and as all the several steps or stages of our salvation are included in this plan of the unchanging God, if we are predestinated and called, we shall be justified and glorified. Or the connecting idea is this: All things must work together for good to those who love God, for the plan of God cannot fail; those whom he has called into this state of reconciliation, whom he has made to love him, he will assuredly bring to the glory prepared for his people.

Whom he did foreknow. As the words to know and foreknow are used in three different senses, applicable to the present passage, there is considerable diversity of opinion which should be preferred. The word may express prescience simply, according to its literal meaning; or, as to know is often to approve and love, it may express the idea of peculiar affection in this case; or it may mean to select or determine upon. Among those who adopt one or the other of these general views, there is still a great diversity as to the manner in which they understand the passage. These opinions are too numerous to be here recited.

As the literal meaning of the word to foreknow gives no adequate sense, inasmuch as all men are the objects of the divine prescience, whereas the apostle evidently designed to express by the word something that could be asserted only of a particular class; those who adopt this meaning here supply something to make the sense complete. Who he foreknew would repent, and believe, or who would not resist his divine influence, or some such idea. There are two objections to this manner of explaining the passage.

1. The addition of this clause is entirely gratuitous; and, if unnecessary, it is, of course, improper. There is no such thing said, and, therefore, it should not be assumed, without necessity, to be implied.

2. It is in direct contradiction to the apostles doctrine. It makes the ground of our calling and election to be something in us, our works; whereas Paul says that such is not the ground of our being chosen.

Who hath called us not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, etc., 2Ti_1:9, and Rom_9:11, where the contrary doctrine is not only asserted, but proved and defended. To say that faith as distinguished from works is what is foreseen, and constitutes the ground of election, does not help the matter. For faith is a work or act, and it is the gift of God, the result or effect of election, and therefore not its ground.

The second and third interpretations do not essentially differ. The one is but a modification of the other; for whom God peculiarly loves, he does thereby distinguish from others, which is in itself a selecting or choosing of them from among others. The usage of the word is favorable to either modification of this general idea of preferring. The people which he foreknew, i.e., loved or selected, Rom_11:2; Who verily was foreordained (Gr. foreknown) i.e., fixed upon, chosen before the foundation of the world, 1Pe_1:20; 2Ti_2:19; Joh_10:14, Joh_10:15; see also Act_2:23; 1Pe_1:2. The idea, therefore, obviously is, that those whom God peculiarly loved, and by thus loving, distinguished or selected from the rest of mankind; or to express both ideas in one word, those whom he elected, he predestined, etc.

It is evident, on the one hand, that πρόγνωσις expresses something more than the prescience of which all men and all events are the objects, and, on the other, something different from the προορισμός (predestination) expressed by the following word: Whom he foreknew, them he also predestinated. The predestination follows, and is grounded on the foreknowledge. The foreknowledge therefore expresses the act of cognition or recognition, the fixing, so to speak, the mind upon, which involves the idea of selection. If we look over a number of objects with the view of selecting some of them for a definite purpose, the first act is to fix the mind on some to the neglect of the others, and the second is to destine them to the proposed end. So God is represented as looking on the fallen mass of men, and fixing on some whom he predestines to salvation. This is the πρόγνωσις, the foreknowledge, of which the apostle here speaks. It is the knowing, fixing upon, or selecting those who are to be predestinated to be conformed to the image of the Son of God. Even De Wette says, Der Begriff der unbedingten Gnadenwahl liegt hier klar vor, (the idea of sovereign election is here clearly presented.)

He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. To predestinate is to destine or appoint beforehand, as the original word is used in Act_4:28, To do whatsoever thy hand and counsel determined before to be done; Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, Eph_1:5; Being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, Eph_1:11. In all the cases in which this predestination is spoken of, the idea is distinctly recognized, that the ground of the choice which it implies is not in us. We are chosen in Christ, or according to the free purpose of God, etc. This is a fore-ordination, a determination which existed in the divine mind long prior to the occurrence of the event, even before the foundation of the world, Eph_1:4; so that the occurrences in time are the manifestations of the eternal purpose of God, and the execution of the plan of which they form apart.

The end to which those whom God has chosen are predestined, is conformity to the image of his Son, i.e., that they might be like his Son in character and destiny. He hath chosen us that we should be holy and without blame before him, Eph_1:4; Eph_4:24. He hath predestined us to the adoption, i.e. to the state of sons, Eph_1:5. As we have born the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly, 1Co_15:49; see Phi_3:21; 1Jo_3:2. The words συμμόρφους τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, express not only the general idea that believers are to be like Christ, but more definitely, that what Christ is we are to be; as He is υἱός; we are υἱοί; as He was ἐν μορφῇ Θεοῦ we are to be σύμμορφοι; as He assumed our nature, and thereby purified and exalted it, we are to partake of that purity and glory. We are to have the same μορφή (form) as the εἰκών of Christ has resemble him as the image answers to the original. As Paul, in Rom_8:17, had spoken of our suffering with Christ, and in the subsequent passage was principally employed in showing that though in this respect we must be like Christ, it was not inconsistent with our being sons and heirs, so here, when we are said to be conformed to the image of Christ, the idea of our hearing the same cross is not to be excluded. We are to be like our Savior in moral character, in our present sufferings and future glory. As this conformity to Christ includes our moral likeness to him, and as this embraces all that is good in us, it is clear that no supposed excellence originating from our own resources, can be the ground of our being chosen as Gods people, since this excellence is included in the end to which we are predestined. I remark here in passing, says Olshausen, that according to Pauls doctrine, there is a praedestinatio sanctorum in the strict sense of the word; that is, that God does not foreknow those who by their own decision will become holy, but he himself creates that decision in them. In προγινώσκειν the divine knowledge, and in προορίζειν the divine will, (both of which are included in the πρόθεσις,) are expressed.

That he might be the first-born among many brethren. This clause may express the design, or merely the result of what had just been said. God predestinated us to be sons, in order that Christ might be, etc., or He made us his sons, hence Christ is, etc. The former is on every account to be preferred. It is not merely an unintended result, but the great end contemplated in the predestination of Gods people. That end is the glory and exaltation of Christ. The purpose of God in the salvation of men, was not mainly that men should be holy and happy, but that through their holiness and happiness his glory, in the person of the Son, should be displayed, in the ages to come, to principalities and powers. Christ, therefore, is the central point in the history of the universe. His glory, as the glory of God in the highest form of its manifestation, is the great end of creation and redemption. And this end, the apostle teaches, is accomplished by making him the, first-born among many brethren, that is, by causing him to stand as the first-born, the head and chief, among and over that countless multitude who through him are made the sons of God. Igitur, says Calvin, sicut primogenitus familiae nomen sustinet; ita Christus in sublimi gradu locatur, non modo ut honore emineat inter fideles, sed etiam ut communi fraternitatis nota sub se omnes contineat.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The apostle, having reckoned up so many ingredients of the happiness of true believers, comes here to represent the ground of them all, which he lays in predestination. These precious privileges are conveyed to us by the charter of the covenant, but they are founded in the counsel of God, which infallibly secures the event. That Jesus Christ, the purchaser, might not labour in vain, nor spend his strength and life for nought and in vain, there is a remnant given him, a seed that he shall see, so that the good pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands. For the explication of this he here sets before us the order of the causes of our salvation, a golden chain, which cannot be broken. There are four links of it: -

I. Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. All that God designed for glory and happiness as the end he decreed to grace and holiness as the way. Not, whom he did foreknow to be holy those he predestinated to be so. The counsels and decrees of God do not truckle to the frail and fickle will of men; no, God's foreknowledge of the saints is the same with that everlasting love wherewith he is said to have loved them, Jer 31:3. God's knowing his people is the same with his owning them, Psa 1:6; Joh 10:14; Ti2 2:19. See Rom 11:2. Words of knowledge often in scripture denote affection; so here: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God, Pe1 1:2. And the same word is rendered fore-ordained, Pe1 1:20. Whom he did foreknow, that is, whom he designed for his friends and favourites. I know thee by name, said God to Moses, Exo 33:12. Now those whom god thus foreknew he did predestinate to be conformed to Christ. 1. Holiness consists in our conformity to the image of Christ. This takes in the whole of sanctification, of which Christ is the great pattern and sampler. To be spirited as Christ was, to walk and live as Christ did, to bear our sufferings patiently as Christ did. Christ is the express image of his Father, and the saints are conformed to the image of Christ. Thus it is by the mediation and interposal of Christ that we have God's love restored to us and God's likeness renewed upon us, in which two things consists the happiness of man. 2. All that God hath from eternity foreknown with favour he hath predestinated to this conformity. It is not we that can conform ourselves to Christ. Our giving ourselves to Christ takes rise in God's giving us to him; and, in giving us to him, he predestinated us to be conformable to his image. It is a mere cavil therefore to call the doctrine of election a licentious doctrine, and to argue that it gives encouragement to sin, as if the end were separated from the way and happiness from holiness. None can know their election but by their conformity to the image of Christ; for all that are chosen are chosen to sanctification (Th2 2:13), and surely it cannot be a temptation to any to be conformed to the world to believe that they were predestinated to be conformed to Christ. 3. That which is herein chiefly designed is the honour of Jesus Christ, that he might be the first-born among many brethren; that is, that Christ might have the honour of being the great pattern, as well as the great prince, and in this, as in other things, might have pre-eminence. It was in the first-born that all the children were dedicated to God under the law. The first-born was the head of the family, on whom all the rest did depend: now in the family of the saints Christ must have the honour of being the first-born. And blessed be God that there are many brethren; though they seem but a few in one place at one time, yet, when they come all together, they will be a great many. There is, therefore, a certain number predestinated, that the end of Christ's undertaking might be infallibly secured. Had the event been left at uncertainties in the divine counsels, to depend upon the contingent turn of man's will, Christ might have been the first-born among but few or no brethren - a captain without soldiers and a prince without subjects - to prevent which, and to secure to him many brethren, the decree is absolute, the thing ascertained, that he might be sure to see his seed, there is a remnant predestinated to be conformed to his image, which decree will certainly have its accomplishment in the holiness and happiness of that chosen race; and so, in spite of all the opposition of the powers of darkness, Christ will be the first-born among many, very many brethren.

II. Whom he did predestinate those he also called, not only with the external call (so many are called that were not chosen, Mat 20:16; Mat 22:14), but with the internal and effectual call. The former comes to the ear only, but this to the heart. All that God did from eternity predestinate to grace and glory he does, in the fulness of time, effectually call. The call is then effectual when we come at the call; and we then come at the call when the Spirit draws us, convinces the conscience of guilt and wrath, enlightens the understanding, bows the will, persuades and enables us to embrace Christ in the promises, makes us willing in the day of his power. It is an effectual call from self and earth to God, and Christ, and heaven, as our end - from sin and vanity to grace, and holiness, and seriousness as our way. This is the gospel call. Them he called, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand: we are called to that to which we were chosen. So that the only way to make our election sure is to make sure our calling, Pe2 1:10.

III. Whom he called those he also justified. All that are effectually called are justified, absolved from guilt, and accepted as righteous through Jesus Christ. They are recti in curia - right in court; no sin that ever they have been guilty of shall come against them, to condemn them. The book is crossed, the bond cancelled, the judgment vacated, the attainder reversed; and they are no longer dealt with as criminals, but owned and loved as friends and favourites. Blessed is the man whose iniquity is thus forgiven. None are thus justified but those that are effectually called. Those that stand it out against the gospel call abide under guilt and wrath.

IV. Whom he justified those he also glorified. The power of corruption being broken in effectual calling, and the guilt of sin removed in justification, all that which hinders is taken out of the way, and nothing can come between that soul and glory. Observe, It is spoken of as a thing done: He glorified, because of the certainty of it; he hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling. In the eternal glorification of all the elect, God's design of love has its full accomplishment. This was what he aimed at all along - to bring them to heaven. Nothing less than that glory would make up the fulness of his covenant relation to them as God; and therefore, in all he does for them, and in them, he has this in his eye. Are they chosen? It is to salvation. Called? It is to his kingdom and glory. Begotten again? It is to an inheritance incorruptible. Afflicted: It is to work for them this exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Observe, The author of all these is the same. It is God himself that predestinated, calleth, justifieth, glorifieth; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. Created wills are so very fickle, and created powers so very feeble, that, if any of these did depend upon the creature, the whole would shake. But God himself hath undertaken the doing of it from first to last, that we might abide in a constant dependence upon him and subjection to him, and ascribe all the praise to him - that every crown may be cast before the throne. This is a mighty encouragement to our faith and hope; for, as for God, his way, his work, is perfect. He that hath laid the foundation will build upon it, and the top-stone will at length be brought forth with shoutings, and it will be our eternal work to cry, Grace, grace to it.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For--as touching this "calling according to his purpose" (Rom 8:28).

whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate--foreordain. In what sense are we to take the word "foreknow" here? "Those who He foreknew would repent and believe," say Pelagians of every age and every hue. But this is to thrust into the text what is contrary to the whole spirit, and even letter, of the apostle's teaching (see Rom 9:11; Ti2 1:9). In Rom 11:2, and Psa 1:6, God's "knowledge" of His people cannot be restricted to a mere foresight of future events, or acquaintance with what is passing here below. Does "whom He did foreknow," then, mean "whom He foreordained?" Scarcely, because both "foreknowledge" and "foreordination" are here mentioned, and the one as the cause of the other. It is difficult indeed for our limited minds to distinguish them as states of the Divine Mind towards men; especially since in Act 2:23 "the counsel" is put before "the foreknowledge of God," while in Pe1 1:2 "election" is said to be "according to the foreknowledge of God." But probably God's foreknowledge of His own people means His "peculiar, gracious, complacency in them," while His "predestinating" or "foreordaining" them signifies His fixed purpose, flowing from this, to "save them and call them with an holy calling" (Ti2 1:9).

to be conformed to the image of his Son--that is, to be His sons after the pattern, model, or image of His Sonship in our nature.

that he might be the first-born among many brethren--"The First-born," the Son by nature; His "many brethren," sons by adoption: He, in the Humanity of the Only-begotten of the Father, bearing our sins on the accursed tree; they in that of mere men ready to perish by reason of sin, but redeemed by His blood from condemnation and wrath, and transformed into His likeness: He "the First-born from the dead"; they "that sleep in Jesus," to be in due time "brought with Him"; "The First-born," now "crowned with glory and honor"; His "many brethren," "when He shall appear, to be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, c.] "In this and the following verse the apostle shows how our calling is an argument that all things work together to advance our eternal happiness, by showing the several steps which the wisdom and goodness of God have settled, in order to complete our salvation. In order to this he first gives us, in this verse, the foundation and finishing, or the beginning and end, of the scheme of our redemption: For whom God did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. To foreknow, here signifies to design before, or at the first forming of the scheme to bestow the favour and privilege of being God's people upon any set of men, Ro 11:2. This is the foundation or first step of our salvation; namely, the purpose and grace of God, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began, 2Ti 1:9. Then, he knew or favoured us; for in this sense the word to know is taken in a great variety of places, both in the Old and New Testaments. And as he knew the GENTILES then, when the scheme was laid, and before any part of it was executed, consequently, in reference to the execution of this scheme, he foreknew us. This is the first step of our salvation, and the end or finishing of it is our conformity to the Son of God in eternal glory, Ro 8:17, which includes and supposes our moral conformity to him. When God knew us, at the forming of the Gospel scheme; or, when he intended to bestow on us the privilege of being his people; he then destinated or designed us to be conformed to the image of his Son; and, as he destinated or determined us then to this very high honour and happiness, he pre-destinated, fore-ordained, or pre-determined us to it. Thus we are to understand the foundation and finishing of the scheme of our salvation. The foundation is the foreknowledge, or gracious purpose of God; the finishing is our being joint heirs with Christ. Now, our calling or invitation (See Clarke on Ro 8:28) stands in connection with both these.

1. It stands in connection with God's foreknowledge; and so it is a true and valid calling: for we are called, invited, or chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, who may bestow his blessings upon any people, as may seem good in his sight, 1Pe 1:2; consequently, we have a good title to the blessings of the Gospel to which we are called or invited. And this was to be proved, that the Jew, to whom the apostle particularly wrote, might see that the Gentiles being now called into the Church of God was not an accidental thing, but a matter which God had determined when he conceived the Gospel scheme. Thus our calling is connected with God's foreknowledge.

2. It stands also in connection with our being conformed to the image of his Son; for we are invited by the Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2Th 2:14. And therefore, supposing, what the apostle supposes, that we love God, it is certain, from our being called, that we shall be glorified with the sons of God; and so our calling proves the point, that all things should work together for our good in our present state, because it proves that we are intended for eternal glory; as he shows in the next verse. For we must understand his foreknowing, predestinating, calling, and justifying, in relation to his glorifying; and that none are finally glorified, but those who, according to his purpose, are conformed to the image of his Son." Taylor.

The first-born among many brethren.] That he might be the chief or head of all the redeemed; for HIS human nature is the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead; and He is the first human being that, after having passed through death, was raised to eternal glory. See Dr. Taylor.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. For whom he has foreknown, etc. He then shows, by the very order of election, that the afflictions of the faithful are nothing else than the manner by which they are conformed to the image of Christ; and that this was necessary, he had before declared. There is therefore no reason for us to be grieved, or to think it hard and grievous, that we are afflicted, unless we disapprove of the Lord’s election, by which we have been foreordained to life, and unless we are unwilling to bear the image of the Son of God, by which we are to be prepared for celestial glory.

But the foreknowledge of God, which Paul mentions, is not a bare prescience, as some unwise persons absurdly imagine, but the adoption by which he had always distinguished his children from the reprobate. In the same sense Peter says, that the faithful had been elected to the sanctification of the Spirit according to the foreknowledge of God. Hence those, to whom I have alluded, foolishly draw this inference, — That God has elected none but those whom he foresaw would be worthy of his grace. Peter does not in deed flatter the faithful, as though every one had been elected on account of his merit; but by reminding them of the eternal counsel of God, he wholly deprives them of all worthiness. So Paul does in this passage, who repeats by another word what he had said before of God’s purpose. It hence follows, that this knowledge is connected with God’s good pleasure; for he foreknew nothing out of himself, in adopting those whom he was pleased to adopt; but only marked out those whom he had purposed to elect.

The verb προορίζειν, which some translate, to predestinate, is to be understood according to what this passage requires; for Paul only meant, that God had so determined that all whom he has adopted should bear the image of Christ; nor has he simply said, that they were to be conformed to Christ, but to the image of Christ, that he might teach us that there is in Christ a living and conspicuous exemplar, which is exhibited to God’s children for imitation. The meaning then is, that gratuitous adoption, in which our salvation consists, is inseparable from the other decree, which determines that we are to bear the cross; for no one can be an heir of heaven without being conformed to the image of the only-begotten Son of God.

That he may be, or, that he might be, the first-born, etc.; for the Greek infinitive, εἶναι, may be rendered in these two ways; but I prefer the first rendering. But in mentioning Christ’s primogeniture, Paul meant only to express this, — that since Christ possesses a pre-eminence among the children of God, he is rightly given to us as a pattern, so that we ought to refuse nothing which he has been pleased to undergo. Hence, that the celestial Father may in every way bear testimony to the authority and honor which he has conferred on his own Son, he will have all those whom he adopts to be the heirs of his kingdom, to be conformed to his example. Though indeed the condition of the godly is apparently various, as there is a difference between the members of the same body, there is yet a connection between every one and his own head. As then the first-born sustains the name of the family, so Christ is placed in a state of pre-eminence not only that he might excel in honor among the faithful, but also that he might include all under him himself under the common name of brotherhood.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(29, 30) For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.—The process already summed up under these two phrases is now resolved more fully and exactly into its parts, with the inference suggested that to those who are under the divine guidance at every step in their career nothing can act but for good. The two phrases indicate two distinct steps. God, in His infinite foreknowledge, knew that certain persons would submit to be conformed to the image of His Son, and he predestined them for this.

When we argue deductively from the omniscience and omnipotence of God, human free-will seems to be obliterated. On the other hand, when we argue deductively from human free-will, the divine foreknowledge and power to determine action seem to be excluded. And yet both truths must be received without detriment to each other. We neither know strictly what God’s omnipotence and omniscience are (according to a more exact use of language, we ought to say, perhaps, “perfect power and knowledge”—power and knowledge such as would belong to what we are incapable of conceiving, a perfect Being), nor do we know what human free-will is in itself. It is a necessary postulate if there is to be any synthesis of human life at all; for without it there can be no distinction between good and bad at all. But we do not really know more than that it is that hypothetical faculty in man by virtue of which he is a responsible agent.

To be conformed . . .—The final cause of the whole of this divine process is that the Christian may be conformed to the image of Christ—that he may be like him not merely in spirit, but also in that glorified body, which is to be the copy of the Redeemer’s (Php_3:21), and so be a fit attendant upon Him in His Messianic kingdom.

Firstborn among many brethren.—The Messianic kingdom is here conceived of rather as a family. In this family Christ has the rights of primogeniture, but all Christians are His brethren; and the object of His mission and of the great scheme of salvation (in all its stages—foreknowledge, calling, justification, &c.) is to make men sufficiently like Him to be His brethren, and so to fill up the number of the Christian family. The word “firstborn” occurs in a similar connection in Col_1:15, “firstborn of every creature” (or rather, of all creation), and in Heb_1:6, “When he bringeth in the first-begotten (firstborn) into the world.” It implies two things—(1) priority in point of time, or in other words the pre-existence of the Son as the Divine Word; and (2) supremacy or sovereignty as the Messiah. The Messianic use of the word is based upon Psa_89:27, “Also I will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth.”

Among many brethren.—Comp. Heb_2:11 et seq., “He is not ashamed to call them brethren,” &c. There is a stress on “many.” The object of the Christian scheme is that Christ may not stand alone in the isolated glory of His pre-existence, but that He may be surrounded by a numerous brotherhood fashioned after His likeness as He is in the likeness of God.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. For] The word introduces a fuller account of the “Call according to Purpose.”

he did foreknow] Same word as Rom_11:2; 1Pe_1:20 (E. V. “foreordained”). The noun occurs Act_2:23; 1Pe_1:2.—Comparing this passage with 2 Tim. quoted above, it is clear that the foreknowing is of persons, not of merit in those persons. It thus nearly approaches in meaning here to sovereign Choice of souls. See too Rom_11:2, and cp. with it e.g. Deu_7:7-8.—Fully to understand and estimate such Foreknowledge, we should need to be the Eternal Being Himself. But our recognition of the extreme mystery should dispose us more, not less, to bow to the revelation of the fact. It is surely dangerous, if only in view of the context and tone of this great passage, (where all is made to bear on the safety of the children of God,) to attempt explanations which lower the idea of a sovereign choice to life and glory.—Cp. on the general subject, (on which it is obviously best to keep as close to Scripture as possible,) Joh_6:37; Joh_6:39; Joh_6:44; Joh_6:64-66; Joh_17:2; Eph_1:4; and below, Rom_9:11, &c., Rom_11:5; Rom_11:7; Rom_11:28.—See further, Appendix G.

did predestinate] Lit. defined beforehand; “marked out, set apart, ordained beforehand.” Same word as Act_4:28; (E. V. “determined;”) 1Co_2:7; (E. V. “ordained;”) Eph_1:5; Eph_1:11. All idea of blind destiny must be excluded; the “pre-ordination” is the act of the Living and Holy God. But while we can thus repose on its justice, it is none the less real, effectual, and sovereign.

to be conformed, &c.] Here is the special regard of the pre-ordination; not merely escape from doom, but sanctity, the likeness of Christ. See Eph_1:4. All the great Doctrines of Grace are, in Scripture, connected with holiness as their supreme aim.—The “conformity” here is illustrated by 2Co_3:18; 1Jn_3:3. It is incipient here, entire hereafter. It is a spiritual likeness; for while the son-ship is in one respect adoptive, in another it is generative. See on “adoption,” Rom_8:15.—The Gr. implies a real and permanent likeness.

firstborn] Same word as Col_1:15; Col_1:18; Heb_1:6; Rev_1:5. He is prior (1) as to time, “begotten before the worlds,” eternally the Son; (2) as to dignity; “in all things pre-eminent.”

many brethren] Cp. Heb_2:10-17; a passage remarkably parallel in some respects. See also Mat_12:48-50.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For whom he did foreknow,.... The foreknowledge of God here, does not intend his prescience of all things future; by which he foreknows and foretells things to come, and which distinguishes him from all other gods; and is so called, not with respect to himself, with whom all things are present, but with respect to us, and which is eternal, universal, certain, and infallible; for in this sense he foreknows all men, and if this was the meaning here, then all men would be predestinated, conformed to the image of Christ, called by grace, justified and glorified; whereas they are a special people, whom God has foreknown: nor is this foreknowledge to be understood of any provision or foresight of the good works, holiness, faith, and perseverance of men therein, upon which God predestinates them to happiness; since this would make something out of God, and not his good pleasure, the cause of predestination; which was done before, and without any consideration of good or evil, and is entirely owing to the free grace of God, and is the ground and foundation of good works, faith, holiness, and perseverance in them: but this regards the everlasting love of God to his own people, his delight in them, and approbation of them; in this sense he knew them, he foreknew them from everlasting, affectionately loved them, and took infinite delight and pleasure in them; and this is the foundation of their predestination and election, of their conformity to Christ, of their calling, justification, and glorification: for these

he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son; having perfect, distinct, special knowledge of them, joined with love to them, he predetermined, or fore-appointed them in his eternal mind, in his everlasting and unchangeable purposes and decrees to this end, conformity to the image of Christ; which is not to be understood of the Spirit of Christ: God's elect indeed are chosen to be holy, and through sanctification of the Spirit, but are never said to be conformed, made like to the Spirit, nor is the Spirit ever called the image of Christ; but this designs either likeness to Christ as the Son of God, or conformity to him in his human nature. There is indeed a great disparity between the sonship of Christ, and of the saints; he is the eternal and natural Son of God, he is the one and only begotten Son, they are adopted ones, yet in some things there is a likeness; as he is the Son of God, so are they the sons of God, though not in the same sense; as he is a beloved Son, so are they; as he is the firstborn with respect them, they are the firstborn with respect to angels; as he has an inheritance, so have they; moreover, he has a very great concern in their sonship; the predestination of them to it is by him; the blessing itself is founded on union to him, on their conjugal relation to him, and his assumption of their nature; it comes to them through his redemption, and is actually bestowed on them by him; and this conformity to Christ as sons, will mere fully appear hereafter, when they shall be like him, and see him as he is: or this may be understood of the saints' conformity to Christ in his human nature, both here and hereafter: here in holiness; the image of God was in in his first creation, this is defaced by sin; and in regeneration, the image of Christ is stamped, his grace is wrought in them, his Spirit is put into them, to enable them to walk in him, and after him: this will be complete hereafter, and will consist in perfect holiness, being freed from the very being, as well as the power and guilt of sin; in perfect knowledge of everything that will tend to their happiness; and in glory like to Christ, both in soul and body:

that he might be the firstborn among many brethren; the persons among whom Christ is the firstborn are described by their relation, "brethren"; to one another, being related to the same Father, regenerated by the same grace, taken into the same family, and heirs of the same glory; and to Christ, which relation, as brethren to him, is not merely founded on his incarnation, but in their adoption; and which is evidenced by their regeneration, and doing the will of his Father; an which relation he owns, and is not ashamed of: they are also described by their number, "many"; for though they are but few, when compared with the world; yet they are many, a large number, considered by themselves; and among these, Christ is the "firstborn"; he is the firstborn of God, the begotten of the Father, he is the first begotten, and as such he is the only begotten; he is the firstborn of Mary, she had none before him, and he is the only one that ever was born in the manner he was; he is the first begotten from the dead, his resurrection is called a begetting, and he was the first in time that rose from the dead by his own power, and to an immortal life, and the first in causality and dignity. Christ is the firstborn with respect to all creatures in general; he was begotten of the Father before all creatures were; he is the first cause of them all, the governor, basis, and support of them: and he is the firstborn with respect to the saints; who are of the same nature with him, are made partakers of the divine nature, are sons in the same family, though not in the same class of sonship: moreover, this character may regard not so much birth as privilege which belongs to Christ as Mediator; who, as the firstborn had, has the blessing, the government, the priesthood, and the inheritance; all which is owing to, and is one end of divine predestination. The Cabalistic (m) writers among the Jews give the name of "firstborn" to the second Sephira, number, or person, "Wisdom", which answers to the Son of God.

(m) Vid. Cabala Denudata, par. 1. p. 200. & par. 2. p. 7.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

29 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.

Ver. 29. Conformed to the image] In holiness, say some; in glory, say others; in affliction, is the apostle’s meaning. Art not thou glad to fare as Phocion? said he to one that was to die with him. (Plut. in Apophtheg.) May not Christ better say so to his co-sufferers?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For whom he did foreknow - The word used here προέγνω proegnō has been the subject of almost endless disputes in regard to its meaning in this place. The literal meaning of the word cannot be a matter of dispute. It denotes properly to “know beforehand;” to be acquainted with future events. But whether it means here simply to know that certain persons would become Christians; or to ordain, and constitute them to be Christians, and to be saved, has been a subject of almost endless discussion. Without entering at large into an investigation of the word, perhaps the following remarks may throw light on it.

(1) It does not here have reference to all the human family; for all are not, and have not, been conformed to the image of his Son. It has reference therefore only to those who would become Christians, and be saved.

(2) It implies “certain knowledge.” It was certainly foreseen, in some way, that they would believe, and be saved. There is nothing, therefore, in regard to them that is contingent, or subject to doubt in the divine Mind, since it was certainly foreknown.

(3) The event which was thus foreknown must have been, for some cause, certain and fixed; since an uncertain event could not be possibly foreknown. To talk of a foreknowing a contingent event, that is, of foreknowing an event as certain which may or may not exist, is an absurdity.

(4) In what way such an event became certain is not determined by the use of this word. But it must have been somehow in connection with a divine appointment or arrangement, since in no other way can it be conceived to be certain. While the word used here, therefore, does not of necessity mean to decree, yet its use supposes that there was a purpose or plan; and the phrase is an explanation of what the apostle had just said, that it was “according to the purpose of God” that they were called. This passage does not affirm why, or how, or, “on what grounds” God foreknew that some of the human family would be saved. It simply affirms the fact; and the mode in which those who will believe were designated, must be determined from other sources. This passage simply teaches that he knew them; that his eye was fixed on them; that he regarded them as to be conformed to his Son; and that, thus knowing them, he designated them to eternal life. The Syriac renders it in accordance with this interpretation: “And from the beginning he knew them, and sealed them with the image of his Son,” etc. As, however, none would believe but by the influences of his Spirit, it follows that they were not foreknown on account of any faith which they would themselves exercise, or any goodworks which they would themselves perform, but according to the purpose or plan of God himself.

He also did predestinate - See the meaning of the original of this word explained in the notes at Rom 1:4; see also the Act 4:28 note; and 1Co 2:7 note. In these places the word evidently means to determine, purpose, or decree beforehand; and it must have this meaning here. No other idea could be consistent with the proper meaning of the word, or be intelligible. It is clear also that it does not refer to external privileges, but to real conversion and piety; since that to which they were predestinated was not the external privilege of the gospel, but conformity to his Son, and salvation; see Rom 8:30. No passage could possibly teach in stronger language that it was God’s purpose to save those who will be saved. Eph 1:5, “having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto himself.” Eph 1:11, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”

To be conformed to the image of his Son - To resemble his Son; to be of like form with the image of his Son. We may learn here,

(1) That God does not determine to save people, whatever their character may be. The decree is not to save them in their sins, or whether they be sinful or holy. But it has primary respect to their char acter. It is that they “should be” holy; and, as a consequence of this, that they should be saved.

(2) The only evidence which we can have that we are the subjects of his gracious purpose is, that we are “in fact” conformed to the Lord Jesus Christ. For this was the design of the decree. This is the only satisfactory proof of piety; and by this alone can we determine that we are interested in his gracious plan of saving people.

That he might be the first-born - The first-born among the Hebrews had many special privileges. The idea here is,

That Christ might be pre-eminent as the model and exemplar; that he might be clothed with special honors, and be so regarded in his church; and yet, That he might still sustain a fraternal relation to them; that he might be one in the same great family of God where all are sons; compare Heb 2:12-14.

Many brethren - Not a few. The purpose of God is that many of the human family shall be saved.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son, in suffering with Christ, in following his doctrine, in imitating his life. This foreknowledge of God, according to St. Augustine,[6] is not merely a foreseeing of what men will do by the assistance and graces of God’s ordinary providence, much less a foreseeing of what they will do by their own natural strength, as the Pelagian heretics pretended: but is a foreknowledge including an act of the divine will, and of his love towards his elect servants; (as to know in the Scriptures, when applied to God, is many times the same as to approve and love) God therefore hat foreseen or predestinated, or decreed that these elect, by the help of his special graces, and by the co-operation of their free-will, should be conformable to the image of his Son, that so his Son, even as man, might be the first-born, the chief, and the head of all that shall be saved. (Witham) --- God hath preordained that all his elect shall be conformable to the image of his Son. We must not here offer to dive into the secrets of God’s eternal election: only firmly believe that all our good, in time and eternity, flows originally from God’s free goodness; and all our evil from man’s free will. (Challoner)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

St. Augustine, de dono persev. chap. xviii. prædestinatione Deus ea præscivit, quæ fuerat ipse facturus. And again, chap. xiv. Prædestinatio est præscientia et præparatio beneficiorum, quibus certissime liberantur quicunque liberantur. See Bellar. and Petau, as to St. Augustine’s opinion. But I never in these short notes touch upon any thing that regards the opinions in Catholic schools; my design being nor more than a literal exposition of the text.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Having let fall a word in the former verse concerning the purpose of God, he thinks good, in what follows, to pursue that subject, and a little to enlarge upon it.

Whom he did foreknow; i.e. with a knowledge of approbation; for otherwise, he foreknew all persons and things: or, whom he did foreknow for his own, Joh 10:14,27; Ro 11:2; 2Ti 2:19. This foreknowledge of God is the ground of our election: see 1Pe 1:2.

He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son; whom he was pleased to approve of, and to pitch his free love and favour upon, he severed from the common lump and mass of mankind, and did appoint them

to be conformed to the image of his Son; i.e. to be conformed to him in holiness and sufferings here, and in glory hereafter: see 1Co 15:49; 2Co 3:18; Eph 1:4-6; Phi 3:20,21; 1Jo 3:2.

That he might be the first-born among many brethren; this is the limitation of the forementioned conformity; though there be a likeness in us unto Christ, yet there is not an equality; he still retaineth the dignity of the first-born, and hath a double, yea, a far greater portion; he is Head and Ruler of all the family in heaven and in earth, Psa 45:7,8.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. For—To exemplify and expand the purpose just mentioned. In this verse he states the first and last step; in the next the intermediate successive steps.

Foreknow—This word in itself signifies always to foreknow simply; nothing else. It never signifies, intrinsically, to predetermine, or to love, or to favour beforehand; but always to foreknow or pre-recognise. Yet this foreknowing may take in a special view or phase of the foreknown object.

It may be a favourable or unfavourable phase, and thus the inferential thought is attained of pre-favouring or pre-condemning. But this thought lies not in the foreknowing, but in the aspect, favourable or unfavourable, of the object presented. Here the objects are the human individuals foreknown as meeting the requisite conditions in the successive stages of advancement, and so the individuals meeting the requisitions of the final glorification. If any one individual fails at either stage, he drops from among the so foreknown. And some do drop out at every stage. God calls more than accept the call and become justified; he justifies more than persevere and become glorified. (See note on Joh_17:2.)

The true idea, then, is to foreknow men as meeting the required conditions of that final glorification; namely, who are finally found among those who love God, (Rom_8:28,) who with patience wait for it, (25,) and who steadfastly endure to the end.

Predestinate—Destinate beforehand, predetermine. From this it is clear, 1. That foreknowledge and predestination are two very different things. Knowledge belongs to the intellect, determination belongs to the will. Foreknowledge is an attribute belonging to the nature of God, pre-determination is an act produced by the free-will of God. 2. Foreknowledge precedes predestination; for God’s nature is antecedent to God’s acts. Did God act without previous knowledge, he would act, like an idiot, in total ignorance. 3. Predestination, so far from being “without foresight,” is truly founded on foreknowledge. It presupposes that all who are elected or predestinated to glory are foreknown as the proper subjects for it according to God’s eternal purpose. 4. Man’s freedom as a free-agent underlies God’s foreknowledge of him, and God’s foreknowledge underlies God’s determination. God’s knowledge is caused by the future act, not the act caused by the knowledge; just as when we look at a man walking, our seeing and knowing his motion is caused by his moving, not his moving caused by our seeing and knowing. So that, in conclusion from the whole, God predestinates to glory only those whom he sees through time and space will finally meet the conditions requisite for that glorification.

Image—Such an image as he presented at the transfiguration on the mount.

Firstborn among many brethren—And thus present a row of glorified brothers, all in the same celestial uniform, with the firstborn at their head.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 29, 30. 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. And whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. Thus is introduced the doctrine of predestination. This is indeed a principal passage on which theological theories with regard to it have been built. It, with the context, is the basis of the definition of predestination in Art. 17. It is, therefore, of great importance to consider carefully what the apostle here really says, and appears most obviously to mean; it being the duty of the expositor to pay regard to this only, in view of the language used, the way it is introduced, and any cognate passages that may throw light upon it. We may observe, in the first place, that it is plain that more is spoken of here than national election, or predestination to a state of privilege, which is the subject especially treated in Ro 9. Individual predestination is in view; and this not to gospel privileges only, but also carrying with it the result of glory. But it still remains to be seen whether such predestination is regarded as

(1) absolute, i.e. irrespective, with regard to its final result, of the condition of man"s use of grace given; and, if so, whether

(2) arbitrary, i.e. irrespective of the Divine foreknowledge of what men would be, and themselves deserve. The Calvinistic view is that God from all eternity, of the mere good pleasure of his will, selected certain persons out of mankind to be the heirs of glory; the Arminian is that he foresaw from all eternity who would, in the exercise of their own free-will, respond to his purpose, and, in virtue of such foreknowledge, preordained them to glory. It is hardly necessary to consider whether there is any countenance given to the view that predestination ensures salvation, however a man may live; the obligation of actual holiness in Christians being (as we have seen) so strongly insisted on all along. If, then, the Calvinistic theory should appear to be supported, it must be with the proviso that predestination of necessity carries with it the grace of perseverance in good works, or at any rate a true conversion before the end, as well as final glory. Let us, in the first place, observe the way in which St. Paul introduces the subject, so as better to understand his drift. He has been speaking of the trials and imperfections of the present life, and urging his readers not to be discouraged by them, on the ground that, if they continue to "live after the Spirit," these things will by no means hinder, but rather further, the final issue. To strengthen this position he introduces the thought of God"s eternal purpose; in effect thus: Your being in the state of grace in which you now feel yourselves to be, is due to God"s eternal purpose to call you to this state, and thus in the end to save you. It is impossible that the circumstances in which he places you now, or any power whatever, should thwart God"s eternal purpose. But it is not of necessity implied by anything that is actually said that the persons addressed might not themselves resist the Divine purpose. In fact, their own perseverance appears to be presupposed already, and they have been urged to it all along, as though their use of grace depended on themselves. Hence the apostle in this passage does not really touch the theoretic questions that have been raised by theologians, his purpose being simply the practical one of encouraging his readers to persevere and hope. We may now examine the successive expressions in the passage, and see what they imply. In ver. 28 the context shows panta to have especial reference to external circumstances of trial, and not at all to men"s own sins. Calvin, commenting on it, quotes St. Augustine as saying, "Peceata quoque sua, ordinante Dei providentia, sanctis ideo non nocere ut potius corum saluti inserviant;" but while he assents to this proposition, he denies, with truth, that any such meaning is intended here. It may be observed, in passing, that Augustine"s proposition, though it sounds strange, may, in a certain sense, be accepted as true: "We must continually err in order to be humble; our frailty and sins are the tools that God uses" (General Gordon"s "Letters to his Sister," p. 371). Further, toiv klhtoiv cannot be understood as limiting toiv agapwsi ton , as though among those that love God only some are "the called;" nor can kata proyesin be understood as limiting klhtoi , as though even of the called not all are called with the purpose of saving them. Only a preconceived idea could surely have suggested such an interpretation of the verse. In ver. 29 (gignwskein bearing the sense of "to determine," as well as of "to know") proegnw may possibly mean "predetermined" rather than "foreknew." Elsewhere in the New Testament, when used of men, it has the latter sense. (Act_26:5 2Pe_3:17) When used of God, it may, as here, have either meaning; (cf. Rom_11:2 1Pe_1:20) but in the text last referred to the first meaning seems more probable. So also of prognwsiv in Act_2:23 and 1Pe_1:2. The distinction would not be of much importance but for the fact that the sense of "foreknew" has been pressed in support of the Arminian view; viz. that Divine predestination was consequent on the Divine foreknowledge of what men would be. It would not, indeed, really prove this view, since it might only mean that God knew beforehand the objects of his intended mercy. Calvin, though translating praecognovit, strongly rebuts the Arminian inference, saying, "Insulsi colligunt illi, quos dixi, Deum non alios elegisse nisi quos sua gratia dignos fore praevidit." Again, "Sequitur notitiam hanc a bene placito pendere, quia Deus nihil extra seipsum praeseivit quos voluit adoptando, sod tantum signavit quos eligere volebat." Prowrise (which might, perhaps, be better rendered preordained, which is its proper meaning, so as to avoid the necessary idea of irresistible destiny which is commonly associated with the word predestinate) must be taken, not absolutely, but in connection with summorfouv . That the elect should in the first place be "conformed to the image of Christ" is all that is, here at least, denoted as preordained by God. The expression, summorfouv thv eikonov , etc., may be understood, from the preceding context, to refer, primarily at least, to participation in Christ"s sufferings. (cf. Heb_2:10) Coming to ver. 30, we find the following sequence:

(1) eternal foreknowledge (or eternal purpose),

(2) preordination to fellowship with Christ,

(3) calling (to acceptance of the gospel),

(4) justification,

(5) glorification.

Edikaiwse (4) means the participation in God"s dikaiosunh , the passing into a "state of salvation" through faith in baptism. But what is meant by edoxase (5) has been a subject of discussion. Some, in view of the aorist, not future, tense of the verb, understand it of sanctification subsequent to justification, regarded as participation in the glory of the Divine holiness. Others, in view of the significance of the word itself, understand future glory, the aorist being accounted, for by the apostle"s taking in one view the whole process of salvation with its final result, which is contemplated as accomplished. Perhaps both ideas are included, present sanctification being regarded as the commencement and earnest of the full glory to be revealed in "the sons of God" hereafter. In any case, we are not bound by what is here said to conclude that final glory of necessity follows the previous stages. For the apostle may be only setting forth the process and result when grace is not resisted. But certainly he implies that, when the result is glory, all is to be traced, not to man"s initiation or deservings, but to Divine grace, and the Divine purpose of mercy from eternity.

In the remainder of this chapter the apostle rises into a strain of glowing eloquence, into a very song of triumph, in view of the assured hope of faithful Christians. Faithfulness, be it once more observed, is presupposed throughout the passage, which is quite wrongly understood as encouraging confidence in any on the ground of their conviction that they are certainly, even in spite of themselves, predestinated to glory: it only encourages perseverance in spite of trial on the ground of our feeling that, if we do persevere, we cannot fail, because God is on our side, and it is his eternal purpose to save us.

Vers. 29, 30. Yes, called according to his purpose; here is a further ground of hopeful assurance. For his having called us to be Christians at all, and justified us through faith, shows that it was his eternal purpose in so calling us, to conform us to the image of his Son, that he might be the Firstborn among many brethren; and that so we, being thus made his brethren, might inherit with him. In short, his having preordained us to our present state of salvation carries with it his preordaining us also to its end and purpose, which is glory.

Additional Note on ver. 29, seq.

The view given above of St. Paul"s intention and meaning is by no means meant as ignoring the essential mystery of predestination, however regarded. Divine omnipotence combined with omniscience on the one hand, and human free-will on the other, seem indeed to human reason to be incompatible ideas; yet we are compelled to entertain both the one on the ground, not only of scriptural teaching, but also of our conception of the Divine Being; the other on the ground, not only of our conception of Divine justice, but also of our own irresistible consciousness, and of scriptural teaching too. Such difficulty of reconciliation between two apparently necessary ideas is not peculiar to theology; philosophy has it too; and there are necessitarians among philosophers, as well as predestinarians among theologians, equally contradicting man"s irresistible consciousness of having the power of choice. We can only regard the conflicting conceptions as partial apprehensions of a great truth which as a whole is beyond us. The apparent contradiction between them may be due to the failure of finite beings to comprehend infinity. They have been compared to two parallel straight lines, which, according to geometrical definition, can never meet, and yet, according to the higher mathematical theory, meet in infinity; or we may take the illustration of an asymptote, which from a finite point of view can never possibly touch a curve, and yet, in analytical geometry, is found to cross it at an infinite distance. For the practical purposes of life both ideas may be entertained; and it is only human attempts to reconcile them in theory, or to escape the difficulty by denying free-will altogether, that have given rise to the endless controversies on the subject. It is important to observe how St. Paul, though he distinctly intimates both conceptions (as he must needs do as a preacher of God"s truth in all its aspects), and though his allusions to predestination have been made a main support of Calvinistic views, never really propounds a theory. When he alludes to the subject, it is with a practical purpose; and when (as in this chapter) he speaks of God"s predestination of believers to glory, his purpose is to encourage them to persevere in holiness on the ground of their assurance of God"s eternal purpose concerning them, the essential human conditions being all along supposed to be fulfilled. (see also note on Heb_6:16-20, in "Pulpit Commentary

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whom he foreknew, he also predestinated conformable to the image of his Son - Here the apostle declares who those are whom he foreknew and predestinated to glory; namely, those who are conformable to the image of his Son. This is the mark of those who are foreknown and will be glorified,

2 Tim. ii, 19. Phil. iii, 10, 21.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

St. Paul in these verses, lays before us a chain of the causes of salvation inseparably linked together, the first of which was before all time, namely, God’s foreknowledge of us from all eternity, and his predestinating and appointing of us to eternal life: Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate.

But what were we predestinated unto?

He tells us in the next words, To be comformed to the image of his Son; That is, to be made like unto our Lord Jesus in affection and disposition, in life and conversation, in the temper of our minds, and in the actions of our lives; like unto him in his sufferings, in the cause of his sufferings, righteousness-sake and well-doing; in the kind of his sufferings, reproach, hatred, outward violence, and death itself; and in the manner of his sufferings, with meekness and patience; and like unto him in his glory; suffering with him, we shall be glorified together.

The second privilege we are partakers of, is in time, namely, effectual vocation: Whom he did predestinate, them he also called. They are called out of a state of ignorance and darkness, of sin and wickedness, of slavery and bondage, unto knowledge, grace and holiness; and the Holy Spirit of God, inclines and enables them to obey this call.

The third privilege is justification: Whom he called, them he also justified; That is, absolved from guilt, and freed from condemnation; discharging them from their obnoxiousness to wrath, and the severity of divine displeasure.

The last privilege we are partakers of, is after time, namely, glorification; Whom he justified, them he also glorified. They are already glorified in Christ their head, they have already the earnest and first-fruits of glory, namely, the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, and they shall ere long partake of the same glory which Christ himself is in possession of; Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me, may be with me, where I am, to behold my glory. Joh 17:24.

But it may be said,, that one link is wanting in this golden chain of salvation, namely, sanctification: No mention is here made of that.

Ans. Some conceive, that sanctificaiton is couched in effectual vocation; others, that it is included in glorification; for sanctification is gloria inchoata, glorification is gratia consummata; grace is the lowest degree of glory, and glory is the highest degree of grace.

Others answer, That the apostle makes no mention here of sanctification, for this reason, because he was setting down here the causes of salvation.

Now, sanctification being the way to salvation, but not the cause of it, the apostle mentions not that here; though elsewhere he sufficiently shews, that none are now justified, nor can be hereafter glorified, that are not here sanctified and renewed.

From the whole, learn, 1. That there were certain persons, before all time, chosen of God to possess and inherit eternal life.

2. That God’s design in chusing of them, was to render them conformable to Christ, in his holiness, in his sufferings, and in his glory.

Learn, 3. That those whom God chuseth before time, he calleth, justifieth, and sanctifieth in time, and will finally glorify, when time shall be no more.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ELECTION, PREDESTINATION AND REPROBATION

29. “Because whom he did foreknow, he did also predestine to be conformed to the image of his Son, to be the firstborn among many brethren.” You must remember that the conclusions here involved follow as a logical sequence from the preceding argumentation. What is the meaning of “firstborn”? It means the first one in the glorification of spirit, mind and body, constituting the trinity of humanity and representing the whole human race in the redemption, in contradistinction to Adam the First, who represented all in the Fall. Our Savior is not only very God, but perfect man, having a human soul, mind and body. Hence in His glorification which characterized His ascension into heaven He represents the perfect and final restitution of humanity. He is the first thus born into glory, not simply numerically, but pre-eminently, Enoch and Elijah having gone on before, confirmatory heralds, thus giving the world these ominous star gleams anticipatory of the glorious rising sun. Hence we see that this glorification of spirit, mind and body is the triumphant ultimatum of the redemptive scheme, thus verifying the original and eternal “purpose” of God to populate heaven with perfected and glorified human beings.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren :

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. For whom he foreknew, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. To foreknow and to predestinate are not the same thing. One is an act of foreknowledge, or knowing something before it occurs; the other is to decree something. We only have knowledge of the past, but God foresees the future even as he sees the past; foresees it, not because he has decreed it, but because there are no limitations on his knowledge. Augustine says: “There can be no predestination without foreknowledge; but there can be foreknowledge without predestination.” Whom does God foreknow? Those who shall love God. As he looked into the future these were present to his mind; foreknown. What did he predestinate of them? Not that they should love God. Not that they should believe; nor that some should be saved and others damned; but that those who he saw beforehand would love God, should be conformed to the image of his Son. The only thing predestinated, or foreordained, is that those who love God as revealed in Christ shall become Christlike in life, and like Christ in eternity. This is the only decree in the passage.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

29. ὄτι because, explains πάντα συνεργεῖ, the whole long process of GOD’S good will to man, a will which is act.

οὔς. The consideration is confined, here, to Christians = τοῖς ἀγ. τ. θ. as His children. The aorists throughout refer to the definite acts of GOD which have come within their experience.

προέγνω. ἔγνων in the Bible, when used with a personal object, implies not mere knowledge, but recognition of the object as in personal relation to the subject; the first act, if we may say so, of GOD’S mind towards man, which then develops in acts of will. Jer 1:5; cf. Isa 49:1; Isa 49:3; Isa 49:5; Exo 33:12; Exo 33:17. So here, Rom 11:2; 1Pe 1:2; 1Pe 1:20 (see Hort) = recognition, previous designation to a position or function. Here = the recognition of them as children, a recognition formed in the eternal counsels of GOD; cf. Mat 7:23; 1Co 8:3; Gal 4:9; 1Co 13:12.

προώρισεν. Cf. 1Co 2:7; Eph 1:5; Eph 1:11; in all these passages refers to that character which GOD meant men to have by being brought into union with Him through Christ. So here, of GOD’S provision of a certain relation or character which should be, therefore, men’s true character, and should be gained by conformity to the character of Christ. The thought is not of determining something which in consequence could not be otherwise, but of drawing the lines of a true destiny, which still required further conditions for fulfilment; cf. Php 2:12-13, and note on Rom 1:4.

συμμόρφους κ.τ.λ. = to share in the character which is exhibited in His Son, as Incarnate. συμμ., cf. 2Co 3:18, Php 3:10, where the character is described as in process of development; and so perhaps Gal 4:19. In Php 3:21 the reference is to the consummation of the process. εἰκών, cf. 1Co 15:49, 2 Cor. l.c[169], ct[170] supra Rom 1:23. The reference is to the true human character seen in Jesus, the Incarnate Son: man is meant to make that character his own under his present conditions by gradual growth, for complete achievement in the end. τοῦ υἱοῦ because it follows upon the relation of children. Consequently the likeness is also a likeness of GOD; of. Col 3:10; Wis 2:23, and there is an underlying reference to Gen 1:26.

[169] l.c. locus citatus

[170] ct. contrast

εἰς τὸ εἶναι α. That He, as firstborn, might have many brethren. GOD’S purpose is to people His household with children, brothers of the Son.

πρωτότοκον. Cf. Luk 2:7; Col 1:15; Col 1:18; Heb 1:6; Rev 1:5; for a kindred idea cf. Heb 2:10. On the word cf. Lft on Col. l.c[171] The question whether πρ. is used in reference to the eternal nature of the Son, or to His resurrection, does not arise here; as the stress is on ἐν π. ἀδ., not on πρ. The word, however, is an important link with Col.

[171] l.c. locus citatus

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. ὅτι: certainly here ‘because,’ assigning a reason for πάντα συνεργεῖ ὁ Θεὸς εἰς ἀγαθόν, not ‘that’ ( = c’est que Oltr.).

οὕς προέγνω. The meaning of this phrase must be determined by the Biblical use of the word ‘know,’ which is very marked and clear: e.g. Psa 1:6 ‘The Lord knoweth (γιγνώσκει) the way of the righteous’; 144 [143], 3. ‘Lord, what is man that Thou takest knowledge of him (ὅτι ἐγνώσθης αὐτῷ LXX)? Or the son of man that Thou makest account of him?’ Hos 13:5 ‘I did know (ἐποίμαινον) thee in the wilderness.’ Amo 3:2 ‘You only have I known (ἔγνων) of all the families of the earth.’ Mat 7:23 ‘Then will I profess unto them I never knew (ἔγνων) you,’ &c. In all these places the word means ‘to take note of,’ ‘to fix the regard upon,’ as a preliminary to selection for some especial purpose. The compound προέγνω only throws back this ‘taking note’ from the historic act in time to the eternal counsel which it expresses and executes.

This interpretation (which is very similar to that of Godet and which approaches, though it is not exactly identical with, that of a number of older commentators, who make προέγνω = praediligere, approbare) has the double advantage of being strictly conformed to Biblical usage and of reading nothing into the word which we are not sure is there. This latter objection applies to most other ways of taking the passage: e.g. to Origen’s, when he makes the foreknowledge a foreknowledge of character and fitness, προανατενίσας οὖν ὁ Θεὸς τῷ εἱρμῷ τῶν ἐσομένων, καὶ κατανοήσας ῥοπὴν τοῦ ἐφʼ ἡμῖν τῶνδέ τινων ἐπὶ εὐσέβειαν καὶ ὁρμὴν ἐπὶ ταύτην μετὰ τὴν ῥοπήν κ.τ.λ. (Philocal. xxv. 2. p. 227, ed. Robinson; the comment ad loc. is rather nearer the mark, cognovisse suos dicitur, hoc est in dilectione habuisse sibique sociasse, but there too is added sciens quales essent). Cyril of Alexandria (and after him Meyer) supplies from what follows προεγνώσθησαν ὡς ἔσονται σύμμορφοι τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ Υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ, but this belongs properly only to προώρισε. Widest from the mark are those who, like Calvin, look beyond the immediate choice to final salvation: Dei autem praecognitio, cuius hic Paulus meminit, non nuda est praescientia … sed adoptio qua filios suos a reprobis semper discrevit. On the other hand, Gif. keeps closely to the context in explaining, ‘“Foreknew” as the individual objects of His purpose (πρόθεσις) and therefore foreknew as “them that love God.” ’ The only defect in this seems to be that it does not sufficiently take account of the O. T. and N. T. use of γιγνώσκω.

καὶ προώρισε. The Apostle overleaps for the moment intermediate steps and carries the believer onward to the final consummation of God’s purpose in respect to him. This is exactly defined as ‘conformity to the image of His Son.’

συμμόρφους denotes inward and thorough and not merely superficial likeness.

τῆς εἰκόνος. As the Son is the image of the Father (2Co 4:4; Col 1:15), so the Christian is to reflect the image of His Lord, passing through a gradual assimilation of mind and character to an ultimate assimilation of His δόξα, the absorption of the splendour of His presence.

εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν πρωτότοκον ἐν πολλοι1͂ς ἀδελφοῖς. As the final cause of all things is the glory of God, so the final cause of the Incarnation and of the effect of the Incarnation upon man is that the Son may be surrounded by a multitude of the redeemed. These He vouchsafes to call His ‘brethren.’ They are a ‘family,’ the entrance into which is through the Resurrection. As Christ was the first to rise, He is the ‘Eldest-born’ (πρωτοτοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, ἵνα γένηται ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς πρωτεύων Col 1:18). This is different from the ‘first-born of all creation’ (Col 1:15). πρωτότοκος is a metaphorical expression; the sense of which is determined by the context; in Col 1:15 it is relative to creation, here it is relative to the state to which entrance is through the Resurrection (see Lightfoot’s note on the passage in Col.).

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Did foreknow [προεγνω] . Five times in the New Testament. In all cases it means foreknow. Act 26:5; 1Pe 1:20; 2Pe 3:17; Rom 11:2. It does not mean foreordain. It signifies prescience, not preelection. "It is God 's being aware in His plan, by means of which, before the subjects are destined by Him to salvation, He knows whom He has to destine thereto" (Meyer). 46 It is to be remarked :

1. That proegnw foreknew is used by the apostle as distinct and different from predestinated [προωρισεν] .

2. That, strictly speaking, it is coordinate with foreordained. "In God is no before." All the past, present, and future are simultaneously present to Him. In presenting the two phases, the operation of God 's knowledge and of His decretory will, the succession of time is introduced, not as metaphysically true, but in concession to human limitations of thought. Hence the coordinating force of kai also.

3. That a predetermination of God is clearly stated as accompanying or (humanly speaking) succeeding, and grounded upon the foreknowledge.

4. That this predetermination is to the end of conformity to the image of the Son of God, and that this is the vital point of the passage.

5. That, therefore, the relation between foreknowledge and predestination is incidental, and is not contemplated as a special point of discussion. God 's foreknowledge and His decree are alike aimed at holy character and final salvation.

"O thou predestination, how remote Thy root is from the aspect of all those Who the First Cause do not behold entire! And you, O mortals ! hold yourselves restrained In judging; for ourselves, who look on God, We do not known as yet all the elect; And sweet to us is such a deprivation, Because our good in this good is made perfect, That whatsoe'er God wills, we also will" DANTE, "Paradiso," 20, 130 - 138.

To be conformed [συμμορφους] . With an inner and essential conformity. See on transfigured, Mt 17:2.

To the image [της εικονος] . See on ch. Rom 1:23. In all respects, sufferings and moral character no less than glory. Compare vers. 18, 28, 31, and see Phi 3:21; 1Co 14:49; 2Co 3:18; 1Jo 3:2, 3. "There is another kind of life of which science as yet has taken little cognizance. It obeys the same laws. It builds up an organism into its own form. It is the Christ - life. As the bird - life builds up a bird, the image of itself, so the Christ - life builds up a Christ, the image of Himself, in the inward nature of man.... According to the great law of conformity to type, this fashioning takes a specific form. It is that of the Artist who fashions. And all through life this wonderful, mystical, glorious, yet perfectly definite process goes on 'until Christ be formed' in it" (Drummond, " Natural Law in the Spiritual World ").

First - born [πρωτοτοκον] . See on Rev 1:5. Compare Col 1:15, 18, note.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 29. “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be a first-born among many brethren.”

The for bears on the principal idea of Rom 8:28 : All things must turn to the good of them that are called according to God’s eternal plan. Why so? Because once individually foreknown, He has determined to bring them to the glorious consummation of perfect likeness to His Son. This is the end with a view to which He has ordered the plan of all things beforehand.

By the οῦς προέγνω, whom He did foreknow, Paul evidently expresses the condition of the προώρισεν, He predestinated. The decree of predestination (προορισμός) is founded on the act of foreknowledge (πρόγνωσις). What does St. Paul understand by this last word? Some have given to the word foreknow the meaning of elect, choose, destine, beforehand (Mel., Calv., Rück., De Wette, etc.). Not only is this meaning arbitrary, as being without example in the N. T., and as even in profane Greek the word γινώσκειν, to know, has the meaning of deciding only when it applies to a thing, as when we say: connaître d’une cause, to judge of a case, and never when applied to a person; [in this case γινώσκειν περί would be absolutely necessary, to decide regarding (the person)]; but what is still more decidedly opposed to this meaning is what follows: He also did predestinate; for in that case the two verbs would be identical in meaning, and could not be connected by the particle of gradation καί, also, especially in view of Rom 8:30, where the successive degrees of divine action are strictly distinguished and graduated. Others give to the word know a sense borrowed from the shade of meaning which it sometimes has in the biblical style, that of loving (Er., Grot., Hofm.); comp. Rom 11:2; Jer 1:5; Amo 3:2; Hos 13:5; Gal 4:9, etc. The meaning according to this view is: “whom He loved and privileged beforehand.” With this class we may join those who, like Beza, give the word the meaning of approving. It is certain that with the idea of knowledge, Scripture readily joins that of approbation, intimate communion, and tender affection; for it is only through mutual love that intelligent beings really meet and know one another. Besides, no one can think of separating from the word foreknow here, any more than Rom 11:2, the notion of love. Only it is still less allowable to exclude from it the notion of knowledge, for this is the first and fundamental meaning; the other is only secondary. There is not a passage in the N. T. where the word know does not above all contain the notion of knowledge, properly so called. The same is the case with the word foreknow; comp. Act 26:5; 2Pe 3:17. In the passage Act 2:23, foreknowledge is expressly distinguished from the fixed decree, and consequently can denote nothing but prescience; and as to Rom 11:2 : “His people whom God foreknew,” the idea of knowledge is the leading one in the word foreknew; that of love is expressed in the pronoun His. The meaning then to which we are brought seems to me to be this: those on whom His eye fixed from all eternity with love; whom He eternally contemplated and discerned as His. In what respect did God thus foreknow them? Obviously it is not as being one day to exist. For the foreknowledge in that case would apply to all men, and the apostle would not say: “whom He foreknew.” Neither is it as future saved and glorified ones that He foreknew them; for this is the object of the decree of predestination of which the apostle goes on to speak; and this object cannot at the same time be that of the foreknowledge. There is but one answer: foreknown as sure to fulfil the condition of salvation, viz. faith; so: foreknown as His by faith. Such is the meaning to which a host of commentators have been led, St. Augustine himself in early times, then the Lutheran expositors; Philippi explains: praecognovit praevisione fidei. Only Philippi, after frankly acknowledging this meaning, instantly adds, that the faith which God foresees He also creates; and so by this door a return is provided into the system of predestination which seemed to have been abandoned. But this view is not compatible with the true meaning of the word know, especially when this word is contrasted, as it is here, with the term predestinate. The act of knowing, exactly like that of seeing, supposes an object perceived by the person who knows or sees. It is not the act of seeing or knowing which creates this object; it is this object, on the contrary, which determines the act of knowing or seeing. And the same is the case with divine prevision or foreknowledge; for in the case of God who lives above time, foreseeing is seeing; knowing what shall be is knowing what to Him already is. And therefore it is the believer’s faith which, as a future fact, but in His sight already existing, which determines His foreknowledge. This faith does not exist because God sees it; He sees it, on the contrary, because it will come into being at a given moment, in time. We thus get at the thought of the apostle: Whom God knew beforehand as certain to believe, whose faith He beheld eternally. He designated predestined (προώρισεν), as the objects of a grand decree, to wit, that He will not abandon them till He has brought them to the perfect likeness of His own Son.

It is clear from the οὕς and the τούτους, whom...them, that it was those individuals personally who were present to His thought when pronouncing the decree.

As the first verb contained an act of knowledge, the second denotes one of free will and authority. But will in God is neither arbitrary nor blind; it is based on a principle of light, on knowledge. In relation to the man whose faith God foresees, He decrees salvation and glory. Reuss is certainly mistaken, therefore, in saying of these two verbs that substantially they denote “one and the same act.” The object of the decree is not faith at all, as if God had said: As for thee, thou shalt believe; as for thee, thou shalt not believe. The object of predestination is glory: “I see thee believing..., I will therefore that thou be glorified like my Son.” Such is the meaning of the decree. The predestination of which Paul speaks is not a predestination to faith, but a predestination to glory, founded on the prevision of faith. Faith is in a sense the work of God; but it contains a factor, in virtue of which it reacts on God, as an object reacts on the mind which takes cognizance of it; this is the free adherence of man to the solicitation of God. Here is the element which distinguishes the act of foreknowledge from that of predestination, and because of which the former logically precedes the latter.

It is hardly necessary to refute the opinion of Meyer, who gives the verb foreknow the same object as the verb predestinate: “Whom He foreknew as conformed to the image of His Son, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Sou.” Has this any meaning? It would be more intelligible if the order were reversed: “Whom he predestinated to..., He also did foreknow as”...

What the decree of predestination embraces is the realization of the image of the Son in all foreknown believers. The adj. σύμμορφοι, conformed, is directly connected with the verb He predestinated; the ellipsis of the verb to be, or to become, is obvious and common. Paul does not say: “conformed or like to His Son,” but: “to the image of His Son.” By using this form of expression, he undoubtedly means that Christ has realized in Himself a higher type of existence (εἰκών, image), which we are to realize after Him. This is the existence of the God-man, as we behold it in Christ; such is the glorious vesture which God takes from the person of His Son, that therewith He may clothe believers. What, in point of fact, was the aim of God in the creation of man? He wished to have for Himself a family of sons; and therefore He determined in the first place to make His own Son our brother. Then in His person He raises our humanity to the divine state; and finally, He makes all believing men sharers in this glorious form of existence. Such are the contents of the decree. It is obvious that Christ Himself is its first object; and hence He is called the Elect, absolutely speaking, Isa 42:1; Luk 9:35 (most approved reading). His brethren are elect in Him, Eph 1:4-6. The Father’s intention in acting thus is to glorify the Son by causing His beauty to be reflected in a family of living likenesses.

The term πρωτότοκος, first-born, no doubt denotes primarily a relation of time: Jesus preceded all the others in glory, not only because of His eternal existence, but also as a man by His resurrection and ascension; comp. Col 1:15; Col 1:18. But the decree of predestination carries us into an eternal sphere, where the idea of priority has no more place, and is transformed into that of superiority. It will be vain for us to take on His likeness; we shall never be equal to Him; for the likeness which we shall bear will be His. Thus what comes out as the end of the divine decree is the creation of a great family of men made partakers of the divine existence and action, in the midst of which the glorified Jesus shines as the prototype.

But how are we, we sinful men, to be brought to this sublime state? Such a work could not be accomplished as it were by the wave of a magician’s wand. A complete moral transformation required to be wrought in us, paving the way for our glorification. And hence God, after fixing the end, and pronouncing the decree in eternity, set His hand to the work in time to realize it. He beheld them at their haven, all these foreknown ones, before launching them on the sea; and once launched, He acted; such is the meaning of Rom 8:30.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.