And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified (Romans 8:28-30 NIV1984).
In our text, Paul first states that God is working for the good of those who love God. We have been called according to His purpose. What is His purpose? Paul states God's purpose in the next few phrases. It's easy to just read something in the text here that isn't there by saying, "God's purpose was this or that," but Paul tells us what God's purpose was. It was so that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brothers. That was God's purpose, to establish a people. Yet, it goes beyond that.
One of the main topics of Paul throughout the New Testament is our union with Christ. According to Paul, "he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17 NIV1984). Just as a husband and wife become one in marriage, through faith we become one with Christ. The Father imputes Christ's own righteousness to us. Jesus Christ forever stands in our place as our substitute, our high priest, our propitiation.
As Paul himself says about true Christians, "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones" (Eph. 5:30 KJV). We have become one with Christ. Thus, whatever is true about Christ becomes true for us when we "unite ourselves" to the Lord through faith in the Gospel message.
Therefore, Paul says that we have been crucified with Christ (Gal.2:20), that we have been buried with Him and resurrected (Rom. 6:4, Col. 2:13, Eph. 2:1, 2:5), that we have ascended with Him (Eph. 2:6), and elsewhere the Bible says that we are resting with Him (Heb. 4), and that we are reigning with Him (Rev. 1). Everything that is true about Christ except for His deity becomes true for us. The Bible adds, "because in this world we are like him" (1 John 4:17 NIV1984).
Since this is true, we are encouraged to "put on Jesus Christ" (Rom. 13:14 KJV). To be a Christian is to assume Christ's identity. That is what "Christian" means--"little Christ," or "Christ-like."
So in the Bible, whenever Paul or any of the other apostles say things about Christians, it is based on the fact that we have assumed Christ's identity. When the Father looks at us, He sees Christ. This is exactly what it means to be "conformed to the likeness of His Son." God's purpose was to have a people who would look just like His Son.
To say that God chose us, and because He chose us He knew us is the reverse of what the text says. It says that we were predestined because we were foreknown. In fact, all of this is written in the past tense. These things have already been accomplished in Christ. The last thing Paul states is that we have been glorified. Yet, glorification deals with the resurrection from the dead, which apart from some Old Testament saints has not yet occurred. Yet it is as good as done because Christ has been glorified. This is the key to understanding that all of these have to do with who and what we have become in Christ.
God foreknew Christ (Isa. 42:1, 1 Pet. 2:4,6). It was Christ that was chosen. When we believe in Christ, all that was true about Christ becomes true for us. Thus, in Christ Paul can say that we were foreknown. It has nothing to do with us individually, but it has to do with Jesus. It is positional truth. Thus, since Christ was foreknown, all that believe in Him are foreknown as well, and the result is that we take on Christ's identity, becoming conformed into His image (And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Col. 3:10 KJV). We are called because Jesus was called. We are justified, because we look like Jesus. We are glorified positionally because Jesus was glorified.
You and I can not boast in anything but the Lord (Eph. 2:9). Everything that is Christ's is ours. In Vs. 32 Paul states, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Indeed He has given us all things in the person of Christ, who is our federal head, our substitute. Thus, in Ephesians 1:4, that "he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." In other words, in choosing Christ, He was choosing everyone who would believe in Christ. Christ would become what we are, so that we might become what He is: "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21 KJV).
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