Master Design

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Romans 8.28,29

Paul means that everything that happens to us is working out for our final and ultimate sanctification, holiness, and salvation. Everything is working together so we will be “conformed to the likeness of his Son”(v 29). This shows us that “the good” God always is working for us is character change. He is making us as loving, noble, true, wise, strong, good, joyful and kind as Jesus is. 

It is therefore extremely important to read verses 29-30 whenever we read verse 28! Paul says that “all things”—the same basic range of good and bad things that happen to all people, with the addition of the suffering that comes from following a suffering King—are used by God in our hearts so we are taught, humbled, and refined into the likeness of Christ.

God’s purpose for all of history is seen in this phrase: “to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers”(v 29). It is an astounding statement. 

It teaches us that God is conforming us. It means God has a master design or form (“his Son”), and now every circumstance—”all things”—is designed to shape, polish, melt, smooth, sculpt, frame, cast and contour us into that master design. He is pouring us into the mold of Christ’s perfect greatness. The idea of “conform” does not mean a superficial likeness, but something total. We are being remade from the inside out, from the depths. It is a likeness of essence. “We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”(2 Corinthians 3: 18). 

We will be his “brothers”(Romans 8: 29). We are not just legally adopted into God’s family (see verse 15); we are also getting his “family resemblance.” We are told that when we are born again, we get God’s very nature, his “DNA”—we “participate in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1: 4). Through the circumstances of life, God is drawing that out and shaping us into brothers and sisters of Christ, who resemble him and our Father. 

(Tim Keller, Romans For You)