Romans 8:29

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 John 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, (Romans 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.