What is at the bottom of God’s purpose? (Rom. 8:28-30)
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Last time, we saw that the promise that all things work together for good to those who love God is a promise that ultimately rests on the unchangeable purpose of God. It’s not our love for God that makes this promise go; it’s God’s saving purpose towards those whom he calls that makes this promise go. But this has been challenged and is challenged to the present day. It comes down to two different ways of looking at salvation. There are those who believe that though God initiates salvation, yet man is the one who is ultimately responsible for saving himself. This is the position of those who embrace a Pelagian or semi-Pelagian view of salvation. In more modern times, at least among Protestants, this position has gone by the name of Arminianism. Then there are those who believe that God not only initiates salvation, but also that he is the one who is ultimately responsible for saving sinners from their sins. This is the position of those who embrace an Augustinian or Calvinistic view of salvation. They believe that God’s grace not only makes salvation possible, but that it actually secures salvation for all who are embraced in God’s plan of redemption through Christ. The question then before us is this: what is at the bottom of God’s purpose in salvation? Is it the will of God or the will of man? Is God’s purpose to save and to bring everlasting good to us finally dependent upon his will or man’s will ultimately?
This is relevant to the exposition of this passage because Paul is explaining in verses 29-30 why God’s purpose is a purpose that brings everlasting good to those who are embraced in it. Note how verse 29 begins: “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.” The word “for” at the beginning of verse 29 could also be translated with the word “because.” God will work all things for the good of those he calls according to his purpose because, and then Paul goes on to explain why this purpose must bring about the good of those who are called. That’s what I think Paul is doing in verses 29-30. He is explaining to us what God’s purpose is and why God is working all things for good to those who are embraced in it.
Therefore, it is very important that we understand the terms that Paul uses here, especially in verse 29, because it is here that Paul unpacks the shape of God’s purpose for us. But it is here also that we run into some difficulty, not because Paul’s words are particularly difficult, but because his words have been bent out of shape by interpreters through the years. This is particularly true with the first thing that the apostle mentions here: God’s foreknowledge. This word has been interpreted to mean that God looks down through the corridors of time to see what men will do with his word. He sees what they will do with it and responds accordingly. God’s foreknowledge, in other words, is a consequence of his foresight. It’s as if God is playing chess with his creation. Those whom he foresees will trust in him and obey him, he then goes on to predestine to be conformed to the image of his Son. Those whom he foresees will not trust him and obey him, he condemns.
If this is what Paul means, then it means that God’s purpose is ultimately dependent upon man’s will, not God’s. God might be the one who initiates salvation and makes it possible, but at the end of the day, man’s destiny is in his own hand. God can only foresee what he will do; he cannot guarantee that anyone will respond in faith and obedience to his word of promise.
Now this is the Arminian position, and it is a position that I believe is fundamentally wrong. In fact, I believe that this passage goes in exactly the opposite direction, and points us, not to man but to God as the ultimate and only reason why anyone is saved. The way Paul is writing here ought to convince us of that. There is no mention of man’s work or will here at all. It is of God from first to last. God is the actor in every action of these verses, not man. Paul wants us to see that our salvation is of the Lord from first to last. That’s the point. In fact, I think we could look at verse 29 in this way. It points us to God’s loving purpose, his sovereign purpose, and to his good purpose. That is how the apostle is unpacking the meaning of God’s purpose for us. It is a loving and sovereign and good purpose. This is not about the intrusion of man’s purpose into God’s plan but about how God’s purpose secures the salvation of his people.
My hope is that as we look at God’s purpose together we will be greatly encouraged to hope in God and to trust in him, and love him even more. Let’s look at these three things together.
God’s loving purpose
I want to begin here with looking at the meaning of the words foreknow and foreknowledge. Let’s start by looking at every instance of these words as they describe the action of God in the New Testament. There are five places for us to look at (Acts 2:23; Rom. 8:29; 11:2; 1 Pet. 1:2, 20).
In Romans 11, Paul writes, “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (11:1-5). Here Paul is explaining why, even though many of the Jews had rejected Christ and his gospel, God wasn’t finished with them yet in terms of his saving plan. He puts himself forward as exhibit A. “God has not cast away his people, he is still saving people among the Jews, because he saved me,” Paul says. That’s his first point in verse 1.
But then he goes on to make a second point. “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew,” he writes. Now what does that mean? Arminian theologians interpret the word to refer to God’s knowledge in the sense of intellectual awareness. So foreknowledge would refer to God’s awareness of something before it happens. But you can see that this meaning will not fit here. God’s foreknowledge of his people, the nation of Israel, is not a reference to mere prescience. It cannot be. God knows all the nations and all their acts in that sense; there is nothing about God’s foreknowledge in that sense of the term that distinguishes Israel from other nations, which clearly Paul is doing here.
What is God’s foreknowledge of his people? To understand this, we need to look at what it means for God to know Israel in terms of the OT itself. Take, for example, the prophet Amos: “Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3:1-2). How did God know Israel uniquely “of all the families of the earth”? In what sense did God know Israel in a way that he did not know Egypt or Assyria or Babylon or Greece or Rome? The answer is obvious, isn’t it? God knew Israel in the sense that he loved them and entered into a covenant with them when he brought them out of Egypt. Moses reminded Israel in his day, “The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people” (Deut. 7:7). God knew them in the sense that he loved them and he chose them.
Incidentally, when the Jewish translators of the ancient Greek OT (the Septuagint) came to this word “know” here in Amos 3, they used the Greek verb ginosko. That’s important because the word Paul uses for “foreknow” is the Greek word proginosko. It’s the word ginosko with the preposition pro attached. But the root verb and the meaning is the same in both cases.
Here is another instance in the OT where this word “know” is used in a sense of covenantal love and blessing. In the first Psalm, we read this: “the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Ps. 1:6). Notice that the Lord knowing the righteous is contrasted, not with his ignorance of the wicked, but with his judgment upon the wicked. God most certainly is not ignorant of their wickedness because he brings the wicked into judgment on account of their sins. He knows what their sins are and is holding them accountable for them. So for God to know someone in this sense of the word means that he blesses them, chooses them, loves them with a covenantal blessing and love.
With this in mind, let’s now look at 1 Pet. 1:1-2. Peter writes, “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.” The emphasis here is on what the Trinitarian God has done and is doing for his elect ones, not on what we have done. God the Father foreknows the elect, the Spirit sanctifies them so that they obey him, and the blood of Jesus applied to them cleanses them from their sins. Again, it is the action of God, not the will of man, that is given the prominence here. Also, note that our obedience is the result of the sanctifying work of the Spirit which springs from God’s foreknowledge of us. It’s not that God’s election and foreknowledge depend in any way on our obedience, but the other way around. In other words, the word “foreknowledge” here is most consistent with the view that it means God’s covenantal love and blessing. As Dr. John Gill puts it in his commentary on this verse, foreknowledge here refers to “the sovereign grace, good will, and pleasure of God, or the everlasting love of God the Father, which is the cause of, and has given birth to the act of election. . . joined with affection, delight, and approbation . . ..”
Let’s now come to the last instance of this word in 1 Peter. There Peter writes, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you” (1 Pet. 1:18-20). Now you may wonder why I have read these words, because you never heard me say the word foreknowledge. That’s because the noun prognosis which is translated as “foreknowledge” in verse 2 is here translated by the word “foreordained.” Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but not in the sense that the Father knew about him! Rather, he was foreknown in the sense that he was chosen by the Father to redeem the elect. You might say that this is an oblique reference to the covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son whereby in eternity the Father gave a people to his Son to redeem, and the Son agreed to do the will of the Father by becoming incarnate and giving his life for them.
Now let’s examine the instance in the book of Acts. It is in Peter’s message on the Day of Pentecost: and it’s about what happened to our Lord Jesus on the cross: “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:22-24). Jesus, Peter says, was “delivered” to be killed “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” Again, we cannot restrict the meaning of the word “foreknowledge” here to mere prescience. We cannot, because the Bible makes it very clear that the death of Jesus was not an accident, was not unplanned, but actually was planned from eternity. Jesus is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. His life was not taken from him, but he gave it up willingly. Hence the phrase “determinate counsel” helps to interpret the word “foreknowledge” here. And when you compare this to something similar that the church says in the fourth chapter, all doubt it taken away as to its meaning: “For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done” (4:27-28). This is not God looking into a crystal ball and planning accordingly. No, this is God determining the future according to the counsel of his own will. The word foreknowledge is a part of that. It refers to God the Father’s covenantal commitment to his Son in the plan of redemption. This has nothing whatsoever to do with God tweaking his plan in light of what he sees will happen. This is God determining the future by his plan. (By the way, we can see from these passages in Acts that God’s determining the future, including the acts of wicked men, does not take away their responsibly or turn them into robots.)
So when Paul writes, “For whom he did foreknow,” he is not saying that God’s purpose depends in any sense on something that he foresaw we might do. Foreknowledge here is not the result of foresight. In any case, Paul doesn’t say that God foreknows events or doings here; he foreknows whom, he foreknows people. As Gill put it, this is a reference to God’s eternal, covenantal love to his people, his election of them, out of which all his saving purposes flow. It’s the reason why foreknowledge precedes predestination in verse 29. God predestines this good end for his people, not because they impress him, but because he loves them and has loved them from all eternity. We love him because he first loved us (1 Jn. 4:19).
The reason why we can be sure that the called of God according to his purpose will have all things work for their good is because God’s purpose is a loving purpose. It was formed in love, and it is carried out in love. My friend, if you love God, if you have been called by God to faith and repentance, then God loves you, and his love for you is an unchangeable and never-ending love. It’s why Paul describes the Roman Christians the way he does at the very beginning of this epistle: “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.” To be a called saint is to be loved by God. That’s exactly what Paul is saying here as well. Believer, how can that not encourage you? God’s purpose toward you is not a cold, calculated purpose. God’s purpose is not a disinterested, detached purpose. It is a purpose born out of the love of the Trinity itself for you! There is nothing conceivably better than that. So let’s be encouraged this morning, and may this bring us to love, trust, and obey him more.
So God’s purpose is a loving purpose. But that’s not all that Paul says here.
God’s sovereign purpose
Let’s now continue to examine the contents of verse 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.” The word “predestinate” means to predetermine, or to decide beforehand. It refers to “the preordained plan of God that will certainly come to pass” (Thomas Schreiner). It is used, as we have already seen, in Acts 4:28. It is also used in Eph. 1:5, 11: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will” (3-5). Then: “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” (11). You will note that in these verses the emphasis is upon God’s will, God’s counsel, God’s pleasure determining blessings for his people. God’s plan is not dependent in any sense upon the machinations of men or devils but rests entirely upon his own sovereign purpose.
God’s purpose is a sovereign purpose. There are so many verses that teach this all over the Bible. We looked at Isa. 46 last time. But here are a few more.
- “The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up” (1 Sam. 2:6-7).
- “But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased” (Ps. 115:3).
- “For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places” (Ps. 135:5-6).
- “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things” (Isa. 45:7).
- “And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Dan. 4:34-35).
I know that some people find this truth to be destabilizing or at the very least unsettling. They don’t like the idea that God has something to do with the bad things that happen in this world. And of course we must never think or believe that God is the author of sin. He cannot be, for he cannot sin! But as the rays of the sun can turn manure into a stinking pile without ever becoming contaminated by it, even so God is able to so rule over all men and all their deeds, the bad as well as the good, so that they do exactly what he plans, without ever being contaminated by their evil deeds. We see this illustrated explicitly in the death of Christ, in the lives of Joseph and Job, as we saw last time. This is high mystery, yes, but it is a Biblical mystery, and we must believe it. God is able to work all things after the counsel of his own will in such a way that he is both completely sovereign and holy and we are never turned into robots or deprived of our moral agency.
However, I must say that I don’t find this to be either destabilizing or unsettling, but rather incredibly comforting. When David was confronted with various options for punishment for the sin of numbering the people, his response was so wise: “I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man” (2 Sam. 24:14). I do not hesitate to say that if I thought for a moment that my future was in any sense ultimately determined by the hand of man, whether my own or others, I would faint and lose heart. But praise God, we can fall into the hand of God, for his hand rules over all things and his mercies are great. I am thankful that God is sovereign. I will not apologize for it. I praise God for it! I rejoice that God’s plan is a plan that predestines, a plan that is sovereign.
God’s good purpose
What does God predestine his chosen for? Paul tells us: “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” The reference here is not so much to conformity to Christ in his state of humiliation, but most of all to his state of exaltation. We are “joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (17). Glorified together! This is again what Paul is referring to at the end of verse 30 when he says that all who are justified will be glorified. To be conformed to the image of the Son of God means that we are marked out for glory. Saint, however lowly you may be today, however unnoticed or unappreciated or unloved, however hard things are today, you are loved by God and destined for glory, a future glory that will outdo the radiance of the present sun. As Paul will put it to the Philippians, “For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body [or, the body of his glory], according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).
So to be conformed to the image of his Son is the best of news. It means that though the clouds of hardship cast dark shadows over your life today, glory is forecast for your future, believer! Glory, in contrast with present weakness and infirmity and sadness and doubt and uncertainty. Glory in unsullied happiness and blessedness and strength and certainty forever in the presence of God! As Jude put it: we serve a God who “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (24).
That doesn’t mean it’s entirely future though. Paul put it this way to the Corinthians: “But 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” (2 Cor. 3:18). Not merely that we will be changed but that we are being changed from one degree of glory to the next. I think Paul is referring to the process of sanctification here. Even though our outward man perishes, the inward man is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). There is nothing more ugly in one sense than a person who is seemingly outwardly without blemish, whose physical figure is perfect, but whose character is scarred by the ugly sores of selfishness, envy, and malice. On the other hand, there is something very beautiful about even the most physically deformed person who is bearing the fruit of the Spirit, who is becoming more and more like Jesus.
But thank God, there is glory for both body and soul in Jesus Christ, and this is what it means to be conformed to his image. Jesus will prevail where Adam failed. Adam was made in God’s image and sinned and all mankind in him has fallen from that image and there are both physical and spiritual repercussions to that. But Jesus through his redemptive work is bringing those foreknown and predestined by God into conformity with his image and succeeding where Adam fell short.
All this is “that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren in the sense that holds the position of chief authority and glory among those who are the children of God the Father. The firstborn in the ancient world was accorded special privileges among all the sons in the family. Of course, Jesus is the Son of God in a unique way, by nature, eternally so, co-equal with God. We are only sons and daughters by adoption and grace, and forever infinitely below God as created beings. Nevertheless, Jesus through his redemptive work makes us brothers and sisters to him by grace.
And due to his redemptive work, Christ is given glory over all things: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11). God’s purpose in doing good for us is ultimately for the glory and preeminence of his Son: “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18). And this is the best of news: our eternal good brings about God’s glory. We know that God does all that he does for his glory. This is only right. Therefore, if it is to the glory of God to bring about good for his people, then we know that the good will be accomplished.
Why can the believer be sure that all things will work for his or her good? We can be sure because this good has been conceived, not in the minds of men, but in the mind of God. We can be sure because it depends not on our ability or goodness but on God’s power and grace. We can be sure because God is glorified in the good that he accomplishes for us. So the good that God has purposed is rooted in God’s purpose, God’s power, God’s grace, and God’s glory. Because God’s purpose is unchangeable and indestructible, because God’s power is irresistible, because God’s grace is unconditional, and because God’s glory is highest end for which God does anything, for all these reasons we can be sure that Romans 8:28 will be accomplished for all God’s people. How can that not bless you and encourage you, believer?
This has been a message primarily to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The promise of verse 28 is to those who love God and are called according to his purpose, which means that this can only be claimed by those who are called to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So what if you have never professed faith in Jesus? What should you do with this? Well, you shouldn’t claim this promise if you are not a believer. The Bible teaches that there is no eternal good for those who die in unbelief but eternal punishment. But neither does it mean that you are blocked from this promise. Because another promise is that if you come to Christ you will never be cast out (Jn. 6:37). Jesus says, “Come to me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The apostles say, “Be converted, and believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” And know that if you come in true and honest faith, it is because God has drawn you and the God who drew you to himself will keep you for himself. Our Lord said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (Jn. 10:27-28). Do you hear the voice of Jesus this morning? Then come to him and follow him. Profess him openly and be baptized. Take his yoke and learn of him.
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