Commentaries:
If God predestines someone to be conformed to the image of His Son, has God ever failed at anything? Never! Philippians 1:6 says that God is able to finish what He starts. We may stumble, but nevertheless, God desires to save us. He wants us to be in His Kingdom, and He has arranged for us to be resurrected at the seventh trumpet, at the return of Jesus Christ. He is preparing us to be conformed in the image of His Son so that we can rule under and with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God. Do we have that hope? Does it stir us that God has not failed at anything yet and that He desires us to be conformed to the image of His Son?
This will not be easy because to do this He may have to give us some terribly great pain. A great deal depends on whether or not we submit to Him—whether we submit willingly or whether we fight Him all along the way.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Don't Be a Prudent Agnostic
The purpose for our admittance into God's presence is that "we be conformed to the image of His Son." When first justified by Christ's blood and admitted into God's presence, we stand before Him, but we are not yet in His Son's image. At this point, the work has only begun; Christ's righteousness is only legally imputed to us. That righteousness is indeed real, but it is not yet inscribed or engraved into our character to become part of our very being. We stand free, clear, and accepted, but we do not have the same nature, mind, or character as the Son.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Offerings of Leviticus (Part Eight): Conclusion (Part One)
The fact that "[we are] to be conformed to the image of his Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" is reinforced in Hebrews 2:10, "[Christ is the archegos] in bringing many sons to glory."
Also consider Colossians 1:18: "He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He may have the pre-eminence." This adds something to Romans 8:29—that Jesus Christ experienced this birth by means of a resurrection. He is the firstborn from the dead. Through this resurrection He became glorified, transformed, or changed from physical and mortal like the humanity in whose image He was made. He became a man to become glorified as God! We can follow this same path.
God has given us the natural and physical world to understand things of the spiritual world. He has given us these things so that we will not be in doubt of the process, God's great purpose, that He is working out.
One of these physical processes that point to the spiritual is the human birth process. When a baby is born, is it any less human than its parents? It has less age, less authority, less knowledge, less skill, less development, but it is not less human!
The Greek prefix in "firstborn" is proto, and it means "first, earliest, in front, beyond, ahead." Does it indicate pre-eminence? Certainly! In the entire Bible, the principle of the pre-eminence of the firstborn is clear. However, it also indicates that others will be following Him in birth as well. If there is a firstborn, there will be a second. The scripture guarantees it! He is the firstborn of many brethren, born by means of a resurrection. He is now God! He is the prototype!
Others will follow the prototype in birth by resurrection. Are these, born just as the prototype was, any less than the parent? In this case, less God? Will they be any less than the Elder Brother? Yes, they will have less age, less authority, less skill, less development. They will never have the pre-eminence of the Father or their Elder Brother, the Son. But that does not make them any less God—just as a baby born to a human parent is no less human than his parents!
Putting Romans 8:29 together with Hebrews 2:14, 17 we see that Christ was transformed, glorified through the resurrection from the dead. Even as Christ is shown to have fully shared in our human lot, we—His brethren, born by means of a resurrection—will fully share in His transformed and glorified nature! What an awesome thing!
John W. Ritenbaugh
We Shall Be God! (Part 2)
This verse is a powerful statement against the idea that one is immediately "born again" when first converted. Christ was born first, and He will be followed by many others, who will be His brothers. If we to be conformed to His image, how can we be anything except what Jesus Christ is—especially when we consider the New Testament emphasis for us to change to be as He is! Does Paul not say that we are to grow to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13)? This more than implies a period of spiritual growth or maturity.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 1)
Think of this in terms of humanity. My wife is from a family into which nine children were born. One died in infancy; eight brothers and sisters grew to adulthood. The firstborn was a son, eight others were born after him. Were those born after the firstborn intrinsically any different from the firstborn? They were all humans, just as the firstborn was!
Transfer this analogy into the spiritual realm, into the Family of which we are already considered to be a part. We are God's children (Romans 8:14; I John 3:1). Our inheritance is to enter that Family by being born again (John 3:3). Jesus Christ is the Firstborn, and He is God (John 1:1; 20:28). We are to be conformed to His image. When we are born into the God Family, will we be any less than He is? No, we are going to be God. We have come later, but we will be just like the Firstborn.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 13)
Now compare with Romans 1:3-4: "Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God . . . by the resurrection from the dead."
Jesus was, in the human flesh—His first birth—a descendant of David. But, by the resurrection from the dead (born again), Jesus became the born Son of God, now no longer human, but composed of spirit—a spirit Being. He thus became the first so born of many brethren who shall be born again at the time of the resurrection of those who are Christ's.
Of course we understand, and so did Paul in writing the above, that Jesus was also the Son of God while in the human flesh. Though born of a human woman, He was sired by God. But this is comparing the two births: the one from the human Mary, as descended from the human David, and the other, by His resurrection to glory, as Son of God.
Emphatically this does not imply that Jesus was a sinner needing salvation. He was the pioneer, setting us the example, that we, too, may be born of God.
Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986)
Life After Death?
Paul actually left one step out here; he could have added sanctified. Sanctification is the period between justification and glorification during which we become holy, when the growth takes place—between begettal and birth (even as it is with a child).
Everything in regard to this issue exposes a process. We are to consider ourselves pilgrims heading toward the Kingdom of God, gradually being transformed into the image of God along the way. The qualities of character, whether human or godly, are not produced instantaneously but through the everyday gathering of information, weighing it, making the necessary choices, setting our wills, and watching to see the results.
Even as Israel had to walk out of Egypt and across the wilderness to the Promised Land—or there never would have been a change in their situation—so must we live this process to grow to become like God and be in His Kingdom. The laws of God are written on our hearts (Hebrews 8:10; Jeremiah 31:33) by life's experiences while we have a relationship with God. Like everything else in life, it is a process that has a beginning and end.
Like every educational system, it moves from simple to complex. It moves from that which is clearly stated in the letter of the law to what is less apparent and depends upon a background of instruction, experience, and results. It depends on faith in and love for God and love for man that have grown in a person to aid him in properly understanding, applying, and practicing the spirit of the law.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 19)
Note that a process is moving from stage to stage. The goal of that process is to be conformed to the image of His Son!
The firstborn, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God! Others are to be conformed to His image—they are to be God as well!
When a baby is born, is it any less human than its parents? Certainly, it lacks the age, the experience, and the authority of its parents. It is less developed, its skills are not honed, and it lacks the knowledge the parents have. But is it any less human? No, it is not.
The Greek word for "firstborn" is prototokos. The Greek prefix, proto, means "first; earliest; in front; beyond; ahead." In every case, it indicates others are following. The proto is out in front and others are following. (We use this same Greek prefix in an English word, "prototype," the model after which everything that follows it is based.)
Jesus Christ is the prototokos, the firstborn (the root word in prototokos means "born"—thus, firstborn). He is in front of others who are going to be born. They will be conformed to the image of the One who was firstborn. We can tie to this Colossians 1:18, where Paul says Jesus was ". . . the firstborn [prototokos] from the dead [by a resurrection]. . . ."
The others who follow will follow exactly the same pattern as the One who went first. The archegos (Hebrews 2:10) who passed through all the trials of life, died, and was resurrected as the firstborn of God, into the Family of God (Ephesians 3:15). Behind Him are many sons who will follow exactly the same pattern and be born, by means of a resurrection, into the exact same Family that He was born into. As Christ was transformed and renewed and glorified by the resurrection, so will His younger brethren!
The thought in Hebrews 2:11-12, 17 shows that Jesus Christ, as a human being, fully shared in our human lot. Romans 8 is the reverse side of the coin—that even as Jesus shared our human lot, we will share his godly lot. Even as He was human, we are going to be God! It is a beautiful, clear, awesome picture!
John W. Ritenbaugh
We Shall Be God! (Part 1)
Predestination has nothing to do with any particular decision a person will make, or his or her fate—it has only to do with the time of one's calling—whether God calls a person now or later. There is not one word in the entire Bible about anyone being predestined to be lost. God has not predestined or foreordained anyone either to accept or reject Christ—to be saved or lost.
The decision we make regarding our salvation is not predetermined. God has ordained that we make our own decisions. God's purpose is that we develop His character, and character cannot be created by fiat. It must be developed through experience, and experience requires time. Although God tells us which decision we ought to make (Deuteronomy 30:19), the final decision to choose life or death for eternity is still ours!
The only decision that is predetermined is God's. God has predestined some to be called at certain times for a specific purpose. The rest will be called by God to understand the way of salvation later. Predestination simply has to do with when one is called.
Jesus Christ established His church to train the future kings and priests of God's Kingdom—to have a part in teaching the way of salvation to the masses during the Millennium. God knew far in advance that leaders, teachers, and governmental administrators would be needed for His Kingdom, so He planned ahead—predestined—that He would call some to this training, especially in this age.
Staff
Is This the Only Day of Salvation?
Here is God's purpose plainly stated. Those He calls are to be conformed to the image of His Son, clearly tied to the theme of creation where God says in Genesis 1:26, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." We have a small part in this greatest of God's creative works. We must yield to that purpose. We must surrender to it and allow its power to carry us along to perfection. But it requires faith, conviction of its rightness, and devotion to its requirements. This creative process requires sacrificing our former lives with their sinful desires in submission to the details of God's purpose for us. This is our small part in this vast operation ongoing already for about 6,000 years.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Offerings of Leviticus (Part One): Introduction
With such positive statements about our salvation, why should we be hopeless and fearfully doubt that God will supply all our needs? Does He ever fail to succeed in whatever He undertakes? These verses flatly and dogmatically state that, if we want to cooperate in faith to bring God's purpose for us to its intended conclusion, we must, I repeat, must, believe that His watchfulness over us involves every circumstance of our lives.
Verses 31 and 32 put a cap on this issue: "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
In verse 30, note that the term "sanctified" is missing from the list of the general stages of God's purpose. Sanctification is the only part of the salvation process in which our cooperation plays a major, consistent, and daily role. Why does Paul exclude it? This was not an oversight; he deliberately leaves "sanctified" out because he wants, for the remainder of this section of this epistle, to focus entirely on the absolute certainty of God's providence, not on any works we may perform in cooperation with Him during the sanctification process.
Paul is not saying that God will always do what we might want Him to do; he is reminding us that He will always do what is right according to His purpose. God has the necessary powers to do as He sees fit for His purpose and us. He is watching, which is even more reason for us to draw on that power.
Nobody can successfully stand in the way of His completing that purpose in each of us, but based on our knowledge of those powers, are we willing to accept His providence? Do we accept what He provides in any given circumstance, even though what He provides might not be what we would like to have?
All of the things Paul writes here are wonderful, but the key to this particular subject is the answer to the question he asks in verse 30: "If God be for us who can be against us?" God has the power and the will, and He does not make mistakes or empty promises. Paul then lists what God has already done for all concerned. Our responsibility is to choose to put these facts to work in our specific circumstances.
The handwriting on the wall for us is this: Terribly difficult times are coming, and they will affect all of us to varying degrees. The only successful way to complete our minute part in God's purpose is to choose to draw on His power. We must begin at once to cultivate the habit of cooperating by faith, accepting whatever He chooses to provide in our circumstances. If this habit is in place through long practice, we will be ready when the pressure really mounts.
Because He is the Source of our deliverance in every circumstance, it is crucial for us to know God as well as we can. Our relationship with Him through Jesus Christ is the key that gives us access to the deliverance He provides. He has the power, and it is His will to meet our every need. It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to use our time now to build on our present relationship with Him, making it stronger and more intimate.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Power Belongs to God (Part Two)
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Exodus 13:14-15
Ecclesiastes 3:6
Matthew 13:44
Luke 10:30-31
Luke 23:42-43
Acts 13:48
Romans 1:1-4
Romans 8:29
Romans 8:29
Ephesians 1:5
2 Thessalonians 2:13
Titus 1:15-16
Hebrews 2:10
Hebrews 12:14
1 John 5:19-20
Revelation 21:7
Library resources that contain this verse:
Articles |  |
A Time to Throw Away |
Damnable Heresies |
God Our Provider |
Is the Christian Required To Do Works? (Part Six) |
Living Stones in God's House |
Peer-Pressure: A Challenge for All |
Power Belongs to God (Part One) |
Power Belongs to God (Part One) |
Power Belongs to God (Part Two) |
Sex, Sin and Marriage |
The Fruit of the Spirit: Peace |
The Law of the Firstborn |
The Offerings of Leviticus (Part Eight): Conclusion (Part One) |
The Offerings of Leviticus (Part Nine): Conclusion (Part Two) |
The Offerings of Leviticus (Part One): Introduction |
The Promise in the Fifth Commandment (Part One) |
The Sixth Commandment (Part 2): War! |
The Sovereignty of God: Part Seven |
The Sovereignty of God: Part Six |
The Ultimate Father's Day (2) |
The Wavesheaf Offering |
Bible Studies | |
Biblical Symbolism: Symbols of the Church |
God's Master Plan |
Holy Days: God's Plan in the Holy Days |
Holy Days: Trumpets |
Is This the Only Day of Salvation? |
Is This the Only Day of Salvation? |
Parable of the Good Samaritan |
The Parables of Matthew 13 (Part Six): The Parable of the Hidden Treasure |
What Is God's Purpose for Mankind? (2) |
What It Means to Be Born Again |
Who and What Is God? (2) |
Why You Need the Holy Spirit |
Booklets | |
Just What Do You Mean . . . Born Again? (2) |
Pagan Holidays—or God's Holy Days—Which? |
Preparing the Bride (2) |
Preparing the Bride |
The Wonderful World Tomorrow: What It Will Be Like |
What Is the Reward of the Saved? |
Why Marriage—Soon Obsolete? (2) |
Why Were You Born? (2) |
You Must Be Born Again! |
Your Awesome Future—How Religion Deceives You |
Sermon Transcripts | |
Church History (Part 5) AD 1934 - Present (2) |
Defining Logos (Part Two) |
Does Doctrine Really Matter? (Part 12) |
Don't Be a Prudent Agnostic |
Don't Be a Prudent Agnostic |
Elements of Motivation (Part 5) |
God the Father (Part 3) |
God the Father (Part 3) |
God the Father (Part 3) |
God's Workmanship (Part 3) |
He Who Overcomes |
Image and Likeness of God (Part 1) (2) |
Image and Likeness of God (Part 2) (2) |
Intimacy with Christ (Part 4) (2) |
Knowing God: Formality and Customs (Part 7) |
Members of the Same Family |
Our Affinity to Christ (2) |
Our Awesome Destiny |
Our Awesome Destiny |
Overcoming Discouragement and Depression |
Power Belongs to God (Part 2) |
Power Belongs to God (Part 2) |
Re-education (Part 2) |
Remember the Christians (2) |
Sovereignty and 'Once Saved Always Saved' |
Sovereignty, Election, and Grace (Part 4) |
Sovereignty, Election, and Grace (Part 6) |
Sovereignty, Election, and Grace (Part 6) |
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 1) (2) |
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 13) |
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 19) |
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 9) |
The Father-Son Relationship (Part 1) |
The Handwriting Is on the Wall (1996) |
The Holy Spirit and the Trinity (Part 7) |
The Promises of God |
The Providence of God (Part 1) |
The Providence of God (Part 2) |
The Providence of God (Part 2) |
The Sacrifices of Leviticus (Part 2) |
The Sacrifices of Leviticus (Part 5) |
The Sovereignty of God (Part 7) (2) |
The Sovereignty of God (Part 8) |
Trial by Fire (2) |
Trial by Fire |
Trumpets Is a Day of Hope |
We Shall Be God! (Part 1) |
We Shall Be God! (Part 1) |
We Shall Be God! (Part 2) (5) |
Whatever We Ask |
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