"To them who are the called according to his purpose."

"His purpose."

God has a purpose, a plan, a method, an objective. If there is an area of greater confusion in Christian thinking than that of God's eternal purpose we do not know of it.

According to current thinking, the purpose of God is to bring us to Heaven when we die. However, this objective is not found in the Old Testament or the New Testament.

The scriptural purpose of God is set forth as follows:

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be changed into the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)

"To be changed into the image of his Son."

"That he might be the firstborn among many brethren."

It is clear from the Scriptures that some people of earth's population were known of God in advance of their lifetime. No doubt it is true that God knows about everyone before he is born. But it appears that specific individuals were predestined to be changed into the image of the Lord Jesus and to be His brothers.

We see this concept of election in several places in the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John:

As thou hast given him power [authority] over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. (John 17:2)

I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. (John 17:6)

The people that were known in advance of God were predestined to be glorified together with the Lord Jesus.

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: (John 17:22)

God causes all things of the creation to work together for the good of those whom God foreknew and predestined to be changed into the image of His Son, and to be glorified together with His Son in the eyes of the world. This is Israel, God's elect.

That the elect were predestined to be glorified with Christ does not mean that their glorification is an accomplished fact or that their destiny will be fulfilled whether or not they respond to their calling. There is no place in the redemptive processes for an attitude of inevitability on the part of God's elect. We must grasp that for which we have been grasped.

God makes sovereign declarations concerning us. However, every aspect of salvation is an opportunity. Whether we gain the Divine Glory depends on the decisions we make.

God's covenants always require our continuing response. If the wicked individual forsakes his wicked behavior and turns to righteousness, his wickedness will not be held against him by the Lord. If the righteous person forsakes his righteous behavior and begins to practice wickedness, his prior righteousness will not save him in the day of judgment.

To be continued.