All Things Work Together for Good; Foreknown, Predestined, Called, Justified, Glorified (Romans 8:27–29)

Rom. 8:27. And He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to God.

Let us repeat what was said before. The Spirit prays for us, and God knows this mind of the Spirit, “as He who searches the hearts.” Consequently, this mind, or this prayer, reaches God not apart from man, but is first reflected in his heart and through it ascends to God. And moreover: this prayer, placed in the heart by the Spirit, being received and felt by the heart, may not be fully understood by the mind or properly expressed in words, yet this does not hinder its efficacy; for God sees what is in the heart of the one praying in this way and what intention the Spirit has, who placed the prayer there.

“And He makes intercession for the saints according to God. ‘Makes intercession’” means the same as ‘pleads for us.’ “For the saints,” that is, for those who believe, who preserve faith and live by faith through the grace of the Holy Spirit. But what does it mean: “according to God?” In accordance with God’s plans and intentions, both regarding the whole Church and regarding each believer. The Spirit of God, being God, knows these plans and intentions; for with God the Father He has one knowledge. Knowing this, the Holy Spirit prays for us in accordance with this, or composes prayers for us and places them in our hearts. And God knows them beforehand through the unity of knowledge in the Triune God.

Ambrosiaster writes: “God knows the prayer of all spirits, because nothing is hidden from Him; much more is the prayer of the Holy Spirit known to Him, who is of one nature with Him, and when He makes intercession for us, He speaks not through the stirring of the air nor as the Angels or other creatures, but as befits His Godhead. Thus He prays to God in us and asks for that only which He knows is pleasing to God and beneficial to us.”

Perhaps “knows” here means not mere knowledge, but also favorable attention, as in the first Psalm: “The Lord knows the way of the righteous” (Ps. 1:6). Since such prayer is according to God and perfectly in accord with God’s intentions, it is heard favorably and received and brings swift fulfillment. Our own prayer does not always hit upon God’s path; therefore we pray, but not as we ought, and we do not see our prayers fulfilled. One prays as one ought who prays not only for what is pleasing to God in general, but for what is pleasing to God at this time, in these circumstances. Since we cannot say that we know this with certainty, the best prayer for us is: “Your will be done, O Lord, upon us as we have hoped in You.”

Rom. 8:28. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

Those who love God are believers who, having received grace, steadfastly walk in God’s commandments, having wholly given themselves to God. To such love and devotion to God, God responds by turning all that befalls them, even the most sorrowful, to their good. Assuring of this, the Apostle completes the strengthening of hope in the hearts of believers, which, as he said above, is the distinguishing mark of true Christians. “In patience” he said, “we wait.” This patience requires support precisely because what is hoped for—the most glorious and blessed—is not obtained quickly. But the need for such support is greatly increased by the fact that the external situation of those waiting is extremely sorrowful. The Apostle now sets forth these supports of hope. The first, he says, is the Spirit Himself, the earnest of what is hoped for. For He, visiting the heart, pours into it sweet consolations that remove the bitterness of external sorrows, and by teaching how one ought to pray, disposes to give oneself wholly to God. God, seeing how they wholly give themselves to Him and thereby witness great love for Him, arranges their life so that all that meets them is turned to their good—spiritual good, that is, to the purification of the heart, to the strengthening of a good disposition, even in cases of self-sacrifice for the Lord’s sake, highly valued by God’s righteousness and preparing immense recompense. How natural then is the conclusion: therefore, be not troubled when meeting sorrows, and do not weaken your hopeful disposition!

Saint Chrysostom, noting that this passage, like the preceding speech, is directed by the Apostle toward the afflicted in order to, having inspired them with hope, strengthen them in patience, adds: “after all that he further adds now, employing an argument sufficient to encourage them. ‘And we know,’ he says, ‘that all things work together for good.’ When he says all things, he includes also what seems to us sorrowful. Whether sorrow, or poverty, or chains, or hunger, or death, or something else befalls you, God is able to change all this into the opposite. It is characteristic of His unspeakable power to make easy for us and to turn into aid what seems burdensome. Therefore the Apostle did not say that those who love God are not struck by evils, but says that all things work together for their good; that is, God uses the very disasters to glorify those in distress. And this is far more important than preventing harm or averting harm once it has come. Thus God did with the Babylonian furnace; He did not prevent the holy youths from being cast into the furnace and, when they were cast in, did not quench the flame, but, letting it burn, through the flame made those youths more than worthy of admiration. And God showed different similar wonders in the Apostles. If men, accustomed to wisdom, can from things make use contrary to their nature, living in poverty, appear richer than the rich, and even turn dishonor to their own honor, then how much more will God show to those who love Him not merely something like this, but something far greater. For us, only one thing is necessary—to love Him sincerely, and all else will follow of itself. As for those who love God, even what appears harmful is turned to benefit; so for those who do not love Him, even what is beneficial brings harm. The Jews all things served to their harm—both the appearing of wonders, and the correctness of the dogmas, and the height of the teaching. For one thing they called Christ the Lord demon-possessed, for another apostate, for the wonders they sought to kill Him. On the contrary, the robber, crucified, nailed, mocked, undergoing countless sufferings, not only did not suffer harm, but even drew from it the greatest benefit. Do you see how ‘all things work together for good’ for those who love God?”

“Called according to His purpose.” With this second half of the present verse the Apostle begins a new foundation of the firmness of hope—that all true believers, those who live by faith and are maintained in the state of grace, are chosen by God; for they, being such, God is for them; and if God is for them, who can be against them?

In relation to what precedes, these words may be taken as the cause. Why do all things work together for good to those who love God and why does the Spirit act thus in them, comforting and strengthening them? Because they did not come into this state of life by chance or accident. All that is accomplished in the order of grace is accomplished according to what was foreordained from eternity and is therefore the work of God, which nothing human can destroy.

“Called according to His purpose.” Our interpreters place the force of the speech here not in the purpose, but in the calling. For all I cite the words of Oecumenius: “since it might seem unbelievable how evil is turned to good, the Apostle, having added to this the calling of God, gave credibility to what was said. This, he says, happens not with everyone, but only with those called by God.”

“According to His purpose,” κατά πρόθεσιν, according to the proposal of will, according to intention. According to whose intention, whose proposed will? Of those called or of the One who calls? Our Eastern interpreters all understand the will and intention of those called. Saint Chrysostom: “the Apostle speaks of intention, so that not everything be attributed to calling, because in such a case both Gentiles and Jews would begin to argue. For if calling alone is sufficient, why were not all saved? Because, he says, the salvation of those called is accomplished not by calling alone, but also by intention. The call was not something compulsory and forced. All were called, but not all obeyed.” Blessed Theodoret: “with great precision (to define his thought more exactly) the Apostle to ‘calling’ added: ‘intention.’ For God does not simply call everyone, but those having firm intention. Therefore in Corinth he said to the Apostle: ‘Speak, and do not be silent, for I have many people in this city’ (Acts 18:9-10); and in Mysia He did not permit him to speak the word (Acts 16:9). In Asia at first He did not permit, and then He permitted it. Therefore also in Jerusalem He said to him: ‘Make haste and get out of here quickly, because they will not receive your testimony’ (Acts 22:18).” Oecumenius: “τοις κατά πρόθεσιν, to those who according to their own disposition and intention were deemed worthy of calling. The Apostle shows that although all are called, not all obeyed. And therefore they encounter (divine) help only those who according to their own intention (from among those called) became called ones.” Blessed Theophylact: “one becomes called (understood—from among those being called) according to his own intention, that is, κατά πρόθεσιν. For calling alone is not sufficient; there is also need for intention.”

In Latin this word is translated as ‘according to purpose,’ and Ambrosiaster interprets it thus: “those are called according to purpose about whom God foresaw that after believing they would be pleasing to Him, so that they were already known before they believed.” Thus here the proposal of will is understood not only of those called, but also of the One who calls. The thought is connected with this: according to predetermination, according to foreordination. From those called, as the Lord says and the deed shows, not all prove to be chosen. Such a significant peculiarity in these latter, appearing after their calling, probably has its place also in the calling itself, where it lays for it, if not the cause, then a firm foundation and sound seed, because in this the intention of the one called corresponds fully to the power of the action of the One who calls. Saint Chrysostom says: “this good begins from the time of calling.” One may therefore suppose that in relation to the chosen the intention itself is accomplished in some particular manner. Although no one can define this peculiarity except perhaps those called and the One who calls, or rather the One who calls alone. But still it does not exclude the intention of those called, but only presumes the fullest correspondence of this intention to the predetermination and power of the One who calls. Wondrous are Your ways, O Lord!

Whose intention then should be understood here—of those called or of the One who calls? Both should be understood, because in calling they are united. The called are called according to God’s intention; but from among those being called they become called, or summoned, according to their intention, when they willingly obey the call and follow it.

Rom. 8:29. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

In verses 29 and 30 the Apostle depicts the providential foreordinations and actions of God regarding those to be saved. In verse 29—the foreordination, the foreknowledge and predestination; and in verse 30—the actions in fulfillment of that foreordination—the calling, justification, glorification.

Predestination is the incomprehensible action of the eternal God; but it is clearly required by the harmony of God’s attributes and perfections. “All His works have been known to God from eternity” (Acts 15:18). If “God knows all things” (1 Jn. 3:20), then He knows the beginning, the continuation, and the end of all that exists and comes to pass; He knows and His final determination of the fate of each, as also of all mankind; He knows whom His final word will touch: “Come,” and whom it will touch: “Depart.” And as He knows, so He determines it to be. But as, knowing beforehand, He foreknows, so also, determining beforehand, He predestines. And since God’s knowledge or foreknowledge is truly true and certain, so also His determination is unchangeable. But, concerning free creatures, it does not restrict their freedom and does not make them unwilling executors of His determinations. God foreknows free actions as free, sees the whole course of a free person and the general result of all his deeds. And, seeing that, He determines it as if it had already been accomplished. For He not simply predestines, but predestines, having foreknown (Blessed Theodoret). We determine a man to be good or bad, seeing his deeds, done before us. And God predetermines by deeds as well—but by foreseen deeds, just as if they had already been done. The actions of free persons are not the consequence of predestination, but predestination itself is the consequence of free deeds.

Thus God foreknew all who would truly believe in the Lord, heeding the call through the Gospel proclamation, and would follow Him in faithful fulfillment of His commandments, and, sanctified by grace, would become holy. And by virtue of this foreknowledge God predestined them to be such and to receive in eternity a corresponding portion. God’s predestination embraces both the temporal and the eternal. The Apostle indicates to what end those foreknown are predestined, namely, to be “conformed to the image of His Son.” But this conformity is received and appropriated here, and is completed in eternity. Here believers, deciding to follow the Lord, are clothed in Christ, the Son of God, embodied in the holy Mystery of Baptism, and, having received the gift of the Holy Spirit in Chrismation, are then transformed in all their nature, through the interaction of freedom and grace, into the image of Christ the Lord. The clothing in Christ in baptism establishes the standard for future transformation, as it were a seed from which the new man—conformed to Christ—then develops. But all this is here hidden, and will be openly revealed in the future. In their full manifestation believers will appear similar to Christ the Lord when He comes; now it is not yet “manifest what we shall be” (1 Jn. 3:2). “Do you see the height of honor?” exclaims Saint Chrysostom; “what the Only-Begotten was by nature, they became by grace.” “For they themselves became sons of God” (Blessed Theophylact). Thus those made of dust become “like the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:48) (Cyril in Oecumenius).

The word “image” in the phrase “conformed to the image of His Son” need not be sought for a special meaning, seeing in it only an intensification of the transformation of believers in Christ, or their fuller conformity with Him; but Blessed Theodoret perceives here such a nuance of thought: “how believers are conformed to the image of the Son of God, the Apostle more clearly explained in the Epistle to the Philippians. For, having said: ‘Our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,’ he added: ‘who will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of His glory’ (Phil. 3:20-21). And our body, of course, will be conformed not to His Godhead, but to the body of His glory.”

“That He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Indicating kinship with the Lord Saviour, these words give wings to hope, establishing a certain necessity of obtaining what is hoped for. Where the Son of God incarnate, our Saviour, is, there must necessarily be also those who have become conformed to Him. He sits at the right hand of God; there around Him, under Him, as the head, or as the firstborn brother, will gather also all the conformed to Him, His brethren. He did not become incarnate and raise up in Himself human nature in order to remain singular, but in order to gather to Himself all in whom this nature will be restored according to His image and by His power. He is the firstfruits, the firstborn; after Him all believers, being regenerated according to His image. “He is the firstborn among many brethren according to the economy; for by His Godhead He is the Only-Begotten. He, taking upon Himself flesh, united it all and wholly with all His nature; became our firstfruits, sanctifying in Himself our condemned nature, and therefore rightly is He the firstborn, and we are called His brethren” (Blessed Theophylact). “He is the firstborn in a birth without sin; the firstborn from the dead; the firstborn, by the victory over death, having ascended to heaven. Therefore He is called to us the firstborn brother, in that He was pleased to be born a man; but at the same time He is also our Lord, as God” (Ambrosiaster). “It seemed to the Apostle insufficient to say: ‘conformed’; but he further added: ‘that He might be the firstborn.’ And, not limiting himself to this, after these words he adds yet: ‘among many brethren.’ In every way he wishes to show clear kinship. However, all this must be understood of the Son of God in relation to His incarnation, because by His Godhead He is the Only-Begotten. Do you see how many gracious gifts are given to us? Therefore, do not doubt regarding the future gifts” (Saint Chrysostom).

By these two actions—foreknowledge and predestination, coming together into one—God’s eternal foreordination concerning those to be saved is exhausted. Now the Apostle will indicate how this foreordination itself is brought to fulfillment by God.