Foreknowledge and Predestination
Prof. Godet. Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son… The "for" bears on the previous verse. All things must turn to the good of them that are called according to God's eternal plan, because, once foreknown, He has determined to bring them to the glorious consummation of perfect likeness to His Son. The decree of predestination is founded on the act of foreknowledge. In what respect did God foreknow them? Obviously not as being one day to exist. For the foreknowledge in that case would apply to all men, and the apostle would not have said "whom He foreknew." Neither is it as future saved and glorified ones that He foreknew them; for this is the object of the decree of predestination of which Paul goes on to speak; and this object cannot at the same time be that of the foreknowledge. There is but one answer: foreknown as sure to fulfil the condition of salvation, viz., faith; so: foreknown as His by faith. The act of knowing, like that of seeing, supposes an object perceived. It is not the act that creates the object, but the object which determines the act. And the same is the case with Divine prevision or foreknowledge: for in the case of God who lives above-time foreseeing is seeing; knowing what shall be is knowing what to Him already is. And therefore it is the believer's faith which, as a future act, but in His sight already existing, which determines His foreknowledge. This faith does not exist because God sees it; He sees it because it will come into being at a given moment, in time. We thus get at the thought of the apostle: whom God knew beforehand as certain to believe, whose faith He beheld eternally, He designated, predestinated, as the objects of a grand decree, to wit, that He will not abandon them till He has brought them to the perfect likeness of His own Son. Will in God is neither arbitrary nor blind; it is based on a principle of light, on knowledge. In relation to the man whose faith God foresees, He decrees salvation and glory. The predestination of which Paul speaks is not a predestination to faith, but a predestination to glory, founded on the prevision of faith. Faith is in a sense the work of God; but it contains a factor, in virtue of which it reacts on God, as an object reacts on the mind which takes cognizance of it; this is the free adherence of man to the solicitation of God. Here is the element which distinguishes the act of foreknowledge from that of predestination, and because of which the former logically precedes the latter. (Prof. Godet.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. WEB: For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.