“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. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29–30, KJV 1900)
When I was just a few years out of military service, there was a show that came on the television called “The A-Team.” The A-Team was a group of ex-military people who banded together to right the wrongs of the world by executing elaborate clandestine missions. Normally, at the end of the mission, the leader, Colonel John “Hannibal” Smith would state, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
However, the mission plans that the A-Team pulled off pale in comparison to the plan that God has fulfilled in every believer. Paul indicates that God foreknew us and also predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son. The word, “predestinated,” proorizo, refers to something that is predetermined, decided beforehand, or foreordained. God established a plan from eternity past that included us as believers.
Some try to explain it by saying that God foreknew who would be saved and then foreordained their salvation. The problem is that this somehow makes His foreordination subservient to foreknowledge. However, since God is infinite and eternal, both His foreknowledge and foreordination are equally infinite and eternal. They are perfectly intertwined. I personally cannot figure out How God planned for me to be saved in eternity past and saw to it that His plan worked out.
Look at the plan laid out. He foreknew and foreordained for believers to be conformed to the image of His Son. For these, He also called us to faith, and He justified us. It is interesting that Paul wrote God has glorified believers, writing in the past tense. He is writing this as an already done deal. Our future glorification is assured because God has foreordained it. We are secure in His promise.
I truly cannot understand how God worked this plan out for me, because I am not Him and therefore am not omniscient and omnipotent. The only thing I can say to this is, “I love it when a plan comes together.” And that is what God did for me. And this not just for me, but for every person who has come to true faith in Christ.
Renewing the Heart 