<p>8:29- see on Rom. 6:5.</p><p><i>For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained</i>- We are called for sure, therefore we were predestinated for sure, and therefore we personally were foreknown. To the Jewish mind, it was the prophets and Messiah who were personally foreknown. And Paul uses this shockingly exalted language about each of us, reasoning back from the basis that we know we have been called. His logical path is irresistible, at least intellectually. But in practice it amounts to an almost too good news. We were predestinated to be saved, to be part of God&rsquo;s eternal purpose, a plan for us which shall last for ever. It would require a battle of wills against God, a conscious, wilful desire&nbsp;<i>not</i>&nbsp;to be in that purpose any more, to make us no longer a part of that purpose. No wonder we should strive to spread the invitations to that Kingdom far and wide, to call people to the Kingdom. We who have heard and accepted that call are even now part of a plan, a purpose, which shall last eternally- this is the significance of God&rsquo;s purpose with us being an &ldquo;eternal purpose&rdquo; (Eph. 3:11). This may explain why often we feel that God is indeed working with us, that we are part of some far bigger cosmic plan, but we&rsquo;re not sure exactly where it&rsquo;s going to end. All we can do is to play our part in that purpose as enthusiastically as possible, knowing that we are playing a part in some unseen purpose, which shall have eternal consequences. Why was the train cancelled, the airport closed by snow? So that for those who wish to be part of God&rsquo;s purpose, who &ldquo;love God&rdquo;, we had time to make a phone call to brother X or pay a visit to sister Y or stay the night with family Z, so that we might play some part in encouraging them towards God&rsquo;s Kingdom? We cannot see it clearly, but we sense something of God in these things, even in death itself. The situation gets the more complex, the waters muddied, in that both we and others can at times and in some ways not respond as God intends, or not as far as He intended. And so the eternal purpose is in a sense thwarted, God&rsquo;s intentions delayed or forced by human failure to be rescheduled, reinterpreted, fulfilled in other ways or at other times. But all the same, we continue to play our part as best we can, as far as we can, loving God with our whole heart, soul and mind, not on a hobbyist, part-time level; and so we shall eternally continue.</p><p><i>To be conformed to the image of His Son</i>- This is parallel to our being fully born into the family of God, of which the Lord Jesus is the firstborn. Whilst the process of being formed after the image of Christ is ongoing in this life, it will come to full term only at our final birth of the Spirit when we enter God&rsquo;s Kingdom (Jn. 3:3-5). The Greek for &ldquo;conformed&rdquo; is used only in one other place, in Phil. 3:21, where we read that at Christ&rsquo;s return, our vile body shall be &ldquo;fashioned like unto&rdquo; s.w. &lsquo;conformed&rsquo; the now glorious body of Christ. The conforming is therefore referring to our final change of nature at Christ&rsquo;s return, even though the conforming process begins in this life (Rom. 12:2). The end point, therefore, isn&rsquo;t so much eternal life, but to be like Christ, the Son of God. Paul has been arguing that we are counted as Christ now, His character, personality and spirit are counted to us. But finally we shall be changed into persons like unto Christ Himself. But the form of Jesus to which we shall be con-formed in that day is the &ldquo;form&rdquo; which He had on earth- for Phil. 2:6 speaks of the Lord Jesus as having &ldquo;the form of God&rdquo; at the time of His final spiritual climax in the death of the cross. This&nbsp;<i>morphe</i>&nbsp;or &ldquo;form&rdquo; refers not to His &lsquo;very nature&rsquo;, as Trinitarians wilfully misinterpret this passage, but rather to the image of God mentally. Who Jesus was in His time of dying was in fact &ldquo;God&rdquo;; not that He &lsquo;was God&rsquo; then, but in that His character and spirit finally matured to an exact replica of who God is in essence. And this is who or what we are counted as today- for all in Christ are counted as Him. And this is who we shall be conformed to in the final triumph at the day of His coming. Our calling is to be like Him; not simply to have eternal life in God&rsquo;s Kingdom. More essentially, the call of the Gospel is a call to be like Him in this life, and to then be finally made like Him. The parables which explain the good news of the Kingdom therefore speak of how life can be lived now, in forgiveness, service, kindness etc. This is the good news of the Kingdom life; the good news isn&rsquo;t simply an invitation to live eternally in a future Kingdom on earth; rather is it the good news of a form of life that can be lived now and shall eternally be lived to its intended fullness. When Paul writes of our being transformed into &ldquo;the image of Christ&rdquo; (Rom. 8:29; 1 Cor. 15:49) he seems to have in mind Ez. 1:28 LXX: &ldquo;The appearance of the image of the glory of the Lord&rdquo;. &ldquo;The glory&rdquo; in Ezekiel is personified-&nbsp; it refers to a person, and I submit that person was a prophetic image of Jesus Christ. But Paul&rsquo;s big point is that we&nbsp;<i>each&nbsp;</i>with unveiled face have beheld the Lord&rsquo;s glory (2 Cor. 3:16- 4:6); just as he did on the Damascus road, and just as Ezekiel did. It follows, therefore, that not only is Paul our example, but our beholding of the Lord&rsquo;s glory propels us on our personal commission in the Lord&rsquo;s service, whatever it may be.&nbsp;See on Acts 9:3. Martial described a crucifixion victim in&nbsp;<i>Liber Spectaculorum</i>: &ldquo;In all his body was nowhere a body&rsquo;s shape&quot;. We are to be &ldquo;conformed to the image of God&rsquo;s son&quot; (Rom. 8:29)- to share His&nbsp;<i>morphe</i>, which was so marred beyond recognition that men turned away in disgust (Is. 52:14 cp. Phil. 2:7). The mind that was in Him then must be in us now (Phil. 2:5).</p><p><i>That He might be the firstborn among many other children</i>- Because we shall be made like Him morally, we will have the essential family characteristic: moral perfection. We will thereby become God&rsquo;s children also, as He was and is. We shall become His &ldquo;brothers&rdquo; in that we have been counted as Him now, and then shall be made like Him. So the language isn&rsquo;t thoughtlessly sexist, rather is it reflective of how we shall be made like Him. Through the resurrection, Christ became &ldquo;the firstborn of all creation&rdquo; (Col. 1:15,18; Rev. 1:5); the same Greek phrase for &ldquo;all creation&rdquo; is to be found in Rom. 8:22. The idea may be that ultimately all creation somehow will follow this same path to glory, to ultimate reconciliation with God. And yet Col. 1:23 uses the same phrase in this context to speak of how the Gospel has been preached to &ldquo;all creation&rdquo;, in fulfilment of the great commission to take the Gospel to &ldquo;all creation&rdquo; (Mk. 16:15 same phrase). &ldquo;Firstborn among many brothers&rdquo; here in Rom. 8:29 therefore becomes parallel to being the firstborn of &ldquo;all creation&rdquo; in Colossians 1. In the end, &ldquo;all creation&rdquo; will be God&rsquo;s redeemed children. And we will only be there because someone went out into our world and preached the Gospel to the &ldquo;all creation&rdquo;. In this lies the eternal significance of calling others to that Kingdom by obeying the great commission.</p>