📜WEB · Romans 8:29
What does Romans 8:29 mean?
"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."
— Romans 8:29 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered.
He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
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.
Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.
What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?
Explanation
Romans 8:29 says that God, knowing certain people beforehand, determined in advance that their destiny would be to become like his Son, Jesus Christ. The verse describes a chain: God foreknew, then predestined, with the goal that Jesus would be the "firstborn" — the preeminent one — among a large family of spiritual brothers and sisters who share his likeness. In plain terms, Paul is saying that God's plan for believers was not an afterthought; it was set in motion with the specific aim of shaping them into the moral and spiritual image of Christ, so that Jesus stands at the head of a vast family of redeemed people who resemble him.
Paul wrote this letter to the church in Rome, a congregation he had not personally founded, in order to lay out the gospel systematically before his planned visit. Romans 8 comes at the climax of Paul's argument about life in the Spirit, following his description of the sufferings of the present age and the hope of future glory. Just before this verse, Paul has assured his readers that "all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose" (v. 28). Verse 29 explains why
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