Where Are We Going? (Romans 8:29-30)

This verse describes the good that Paul had in mind in verse 28. Many suggestions are made concerning what Paul meant by good, yet it is clear from verses 29 and 30 that the good Paul had in mind is connected to the ultimate destiny of all Christians, to what things will be like for them at the end of time as we know it. Paul wanted his readers to have a proper perspective on life, indeed on the history of the world.

The best perspective will include seeing what happened before this world was and what will happen after its current story ends. I mentioned before how commentators and authors have likened Romans 8 to mountain ranges like the Alps which give great panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. We can recall how Bunyan’s pilgrims could, on a clear day, view the Celestial City from the Delectable Mountains by using the telescope of God’s Word.

In this pair of verses Paul gives two ways of looking at things, and each of them looks backwards and forwards from a great viewpoint. We can be assured that the apostle wanted his readers to stand beside him and survey the vista as it stretches out endlessly into the past and into the future.

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The first viewpoint is stated in verse 29, a verse that describes what God did in eternity past with an eye to what will happen in eternity future. Four details are given.

 

The first detail that Paul mentions is that God foreknew people. He does not say that God foreknew what they would do or that he foreknew what would happen to them in this life. Rather he foreknew them. We may think that ‘foreknew’ only means God looking ahead whereas its main application is that it describes what God was doing in eternity past with regard to them. They were not yet in existence, but God was thinking about them.

 

I suppose an illustration would be parents planning for the birth of their child. They think about the eventual arrival in different ways. God too was thinking about the eventual arrival of his people in glory and what he would do for them concerning the journey there and their reaching the destination.

 

Connected to thinking about them is how he thought about them. God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts, but as far as his people are concerned, his thoughts were the constant expression of his eternal love for them. He was not working out what he would do for them – he always knew what he would do because he has an eternal plan, a plan that has always been in his heart. It is good for us at times to take a seat and reflect on the amazing fact that God the Father has eternally loved his people and that he thought about them throughout eternity past.

 

The second detail is that he predestined them to a certain outcome. We may wonder what the difference is between election and predestination. One way of stating the difference is to say that predestination describes what God has planned for those he chose, his intentions for his elected people. While it is correct to say that God has predestined all of time and whatever happens in it, there is a sense in which the focus of predestination is on the final outcome of God’s plan. What does a person need when he makes a plan? He needs wisdom to devise it and power to enact it.

 

Sometimes a plan is kept secret, at other times an invitation is given to come and discover the contents of the plan. As far as God’s plan is concerned, it is secret in many ways, but an invitation is given to us to come and discover some of the details of his plan. The invitation is given in the gospel offer to sinners to believe in Jesus and be saved from their sins and its consequences. Once a sinner has believed in Jesus, he or she will discover how secure saved sinners are regarding their eternal destiny.

 

The third detail is that God the Father predetermined that they would be conformed to the image of his Son. Obviously, a great deal is unmentioned in this statement. Conformity to the image of his Son refers to their becoming like the Son in his humanity. The person of Jesus includes a human nature as well as a divine nature, although he did not have the human nature when the eternal plan was made. But he has it now, and indeed has had it for over two thousand years, and he will have it forever.

 

For most of that period, his human nature has been glorified, but we should never forget that, for over three decades, his human nature was an expression of deep humiliation. In his humiliation, he was holy and in his glorification he is holy. He was and is and will be sinless. Today and forevermore he is a holy glorified man in the presence of God. And Christians are predestined to be like him. They are going to be perfect in holiness and possessors of glory forever.

 

If God’s foreknowledge reveals his love, if God’s predestining reveals his wisdom and power, then his purpose of predestination reveals his grace to unworthy sinners. Christians will all yet be like Jesus, all due to his amazing grace.

 

Paul mentions a fourth detail, and this particular detail mentions the reason for it all. The reason for it all is the Father’s desire that his Son would ‘be the firstborn among many brothers’.

 

Firstborn is a title of dignity given in the Old Testament to a ruler like David or Solomon. Moreover, in Old Testament Israel the firstborn received a double portion of the inheritance, probably to signify his right to all of it, but he was only given a double portion because he had to share the inheritance with his brothers. In the arrangements of the eternity to come, Jesus will be the firstborn, the sovereign of all, but through it all he will share his inheritance with all his people. He is the heir and through divine grace we become joint heirs with him.

 

We should also note the number of the members of God’s family, described here as many brothers. At the end of the day of grace, when all God’s people gather in his presence, they are described as a number that no one can count. This does not mean that the Lord is ignorant of the number. Rather the gathering will be so large that normal human ways of estimating the size of a crowd will be unable to say how large the number of the saved will be, gathered from all the periods of history and people groups that lived on the earth.

 

As we sit and contemplate all this, surely our response should be one of wonder. Wonder at the competence of God, wonder at the love of God, wonder at the wisdom and power of God, wonder at the grace of God, wonder at the size of the family of God, and wonder at the destiny God has planned for sinners like us.

 

How does it occur (v. 30)?

In verse 30, Paul explains how God’s people move from being predestinated to being glorified. He mentions four links in the chain – predestination, calling, justification and glorification. We have already thought briefly about predestination, so we can consider the other three links now.

 

By calling Paul means the gospel call effectually applied by God to sinners. To understand this, we make a distinction between the general call and the effectual call. It is important to remember that the terms in each are the same. There is no difference between the words used in the general call and in the effectual call. Sinners are invited to come to Jesus for mercy.

 

At a moment in time, the call becomes effectual for one of them and he or she believes in Jesus (each of them has that particular moment whenever it is). God the Father sent the Spirit and he regenerated the sinner who became alive spiritually and trusted in Jesus. No one on earth knows who the next believer will be. But the moment for each has been arranged from eternity and will surely take place.

 

What does God do when a sinner believes in Jesus? He justifies him or her. Justification does not refer to an inward change in a sinner. The change within happens before each is justified when they are regenerated and become new creations. In justification, there is a change in the status of each in the courts of heaven. This change occurs immediately a sinner believes. Each is fully pardoned and the righteousness of Jesus is reckoned to each personal account. Now and forever such are accepted in the Beloved. Although still sinners while they live on earth, each is a justified sinner. Justification is a liberating doctrine for believers once it is understood.

 

The final link in the chain is glorification. What does Paul mean by this divine action? Two details are obvious. One is the use of a verbal tense that suggests completion and the other is its place in the sequence. Its place in the sequence means it only happens to one who has been justified. The tense of the verb indicates it is a past or present announcement or experience in that justified person. Another matter worth noting is that many wonder why sanctification is not mentioned here.

 

There are at least two interpretations concerning the meaning of glorification. One is that Paul is using the language of certainty, and since it is certain that a justified person will yet be glorified Paul chose to emphasise the reality of glorification by using a tense that indicates completion. That suggestion is true, but it may not be the truth that Paul is stating here. The other view is that by glorified Paul means the conformity of believers to the likeness of Christ, and if that is the correct interpretation the use of the tense is explainable. Another factor concerning this view is that it allows sanctification to be included in the sequence. To be made like Jesus is glorification, and even regarding the present life Paul tells us elsewhere that believers are being changed from glory to glory in their inner man, even when they sense the power of sin.

 

Application

The obvious application is that we should become spiritual mountaineers and in the Christian life it is possible to ascend far higher than an earthly Everest. Every day, we should take a look into eternity past and eternity future, and we should draw strength and encouragement from what we see.

 

Why do we often fail to do this? One answer to this question is that we fail to reckon correctly with indwelling sin. When we sense its power we tend to deduce that its presence suggests we are not converted or are backsliding in some way. Instead we should see that our awareness of it is a sign that we have spiritual vision, and we should deduce that the God who planned our salvation knew about our sinfulness when he did so, and included in his plan the reality of justification and progression in the greatest possible experience, of being conformed to the image of Christ. But we should not only look at our sinfulness, but look into the eternities.

 

A third application is to remind ourselves of the final number that will compose the family of God and of the diversity of people who will yet be in the kingdom. Jesus, when he was on earth, looked forward to the period in which we live, the period in which many shall come from the east and from the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. After all is said and done, blessed for evermore are those sinners who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.