John Calvin Commentary Romans 8:29

"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:" — Romans 8:29 (ASV)

For whom he has foreknown, etc. He then shows, by the very order of election, that the afflictions of the faithful are nothing other than the way in which they are conformed to the image of Christ; and he had previously declared that this was necessary. Therefore, there is 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 mere prescience, as some unwise people 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.

Therefore, those to whom I have alluded foolishly draw this conclusion: that God has elected no one except those whom he foresaw would be worthy of his grace. Peter does not indeed flatter the faithful, as though everyone 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.

Paul does the same in this passage, repeating in other words what he had previously said about God’s purpose. It therefore follows that this knowledge is connected with God’s good pleasure, for he foreknew nothing outside 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 (proorizein), which some translate as 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 did he simply say that they were to be conformed to Christ, but to the image of Christ, so that he might teach us that there is in Christ a living and conspicuous exemplar, which is presented 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 (einai), can be rendered in these two ways, but I prefer the first rendering. But in mentioning Christ’s primogeniture, Paul only meant 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.

Therefore, so 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.

Although indeed the condition of the godly is apparently varied, just as there is a difference between the members of the same body, there is still a connection between everyone and his own head.

Just as 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.