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.
For - as touching this "calling according to His purpose,"
Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate - or 'fore-ordain.' In what sense are we to take the word "foreknow" here? 'Those who He foreknew would repent and believe,' say Pelagians of every age and every hue. But this is to thrust into the text what is contrary to the whole spirit, and even letter, of the apostle's teaching, as will appear from the following chapter; see also 2 Timothy 1:9. In Romans 11:2 and Psalms 1:6 God's "knowledge" of His people cannot be restricted to a mere foresight of future events, or acquaintance with what is passing here below. Does "whom He did foreknow," then, mean 'whom He fore-ordained?' That can hardly be, since both words are here used, and the thing meant by the one is spoken of as the cause of what is intended by the other. It is difficult, indeed, for our limited minds to distinguish them as states of the Divine Mind toward men, especially since in Acts 2:23, "the counsel" is put before "the foreknowledge of God," while in 1 Peter 1:2, "election" is said to be "according to the foreknowledge of God." But probably God's "foreknowledge" of His own people means His special, gracious complacency in them, while His "predestinating" or "fore-ordaining" them signifies His fixed purpose, flowing from this, to "save them and call them with an holy calling" (2 Timothy 1:9). 'According to Pauline doctrine (says Olshausen-and the testimony is remarkable from a Lutheran) there is a predestination of saints, in the proper sense of the words: that is, not that God knows beforehand that they will by their own decision be holy, but that he creates this very decision in them.'
[To be] conformed to the image of his Son, х summorfous (G4832)] - or, 'be counterparts of His Son's image;' to be sons, that is, after the pattern or I model of His Sonship in our nature,
That he might be the first-born among many brethren - the First-born being the Son by nature; His "many brethren" sons by adoption: He, in the Humanity of the Only-begotten of the Father, bearing our sins on the accursed tree; they in that of mere men ready to perish by reason of sin, but redeemed by His blood from condemnation and wrath, and transformed into his likeness: He "the First-born from the dead;" they "that sleep in Jesus" to be in due time "brought with Him:" "The First-born," already "crowned with glory and honour;" His "many brethren," "when He shall appear, to be like Him, for they shall see Him as he is."