its ultimate, future sense, as the final fulfillment of God’s decree for believers. “For those
23Lenski’s exclamation regarding this statement is apt: “Such poor vessels holding so vast a treasure! Such superlative power using such fragile vessels!” R. C. H. Lenski, Interpretation of I and II Corinthians (Columbus, OH: Wartburg, 1946), 976.
24Barnett notes that Paul “does not minimize the dark realities of the present life. Those who are still ‘in the body’ are not yet ‘at home with the Lord,’” Paul Barnett, The Second Epistle to the
Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 45.
25This is the tenor of Paul’s mindset: “we are very bold” (3:12), “there is freedom” (3:17), “we do not lose heart (4:1) “we have this treasure” (4:7), “we have the same spirit of faith” (4:13), “so we do not lose heart” (4:16), “so we are always of good courage” (5:6), “yes, we are of good courage” (5:8). See Lenski, Interpretation of I and II Corinthians, 1010.
whom he foreknew,” Paul writes, “he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom 8:29).26 As a future, climactic event, believers’ ultimate Christiformity is described in several ways:
“the revealing of the sons of God” (8:19), their “adoption as sons,” “the redemption of our bodies” (8:23), and their conformity “to the image of his son” (8:29).27
Moreover, Paul discloses God’s purpose for Christiformity: “that [Christ]
might be the firstborn among many brethren” (8:29). This is not to put believers on par with Christ, as siblings of equal rank.28 As God, Christ is ontologically distinct from mere human beings (Col 1:15-17, Heb 1:6, Rev 1:5). Rather, Paul designates Christ as the
“firstborn among many brothers” to emphasize the final triumph of his redemptive work.
Since humans had rebelled against God, corrupting themselves and thus their ability to function as God’s sons and daughters, image-bearers, and vice-regents, Christ came to make vicarious atonement for their sin and provide them with his righteousness—i.e., his flawless keeping of God’s requirements which every other human had failed to do.29 Although Christ’s role in redemption is now complete, the Spirit’s work of sanctification is still ongoing, for saints are still sinners. When, however, God accomplishes his final decree for believers, and they stand not only justified but also sanctified and glorified, then their moral kinship to Christ, their “common mark of brotherhood,” will be displayed: a vast throng of “many” brothers and sisters, who, like Jesus,
“always do the things that are pleasing to [God]” (John 8:29).30
26See Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 453.
27Berkouwer, Faith and Sanctification, 110.
28John Calvin, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, ed. David W. Torrance and Thomas F.
Torrance, trans. Ross Mackenzie, vol. 8, The Epistles of Paul to the Romans and Thessalonians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973), 181.
29John Gill, An Exposition of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, The Newport Commentary Series (Springfield, MO: Particular Baptist Press, 2002), 288–90.
30Calvin, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, 8, The Epistles of Paul to the Romans and
But that event is yet to come. How, then, can Christiformic image-bearers find the confidence now that their Christiformity will be complete? The Holy Spirit, Paul teaches, works to assure believers of their present status as children of God and, by inference, of their ultimate conformity to the image of Christ: “You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs” (Rom 8:15-17).31
Yet this promise of the Spirit echoes into the hearts of saints who are also sinners inhabiting a fallen world. Therefore, the tension we observed in 2 Corinthians 3-5 imposes itself here as well. While believers can enjoy the assurance of the Holy Spirit, which is sufficient to “help us in our weakness,” this assurance does not eliminate their need to “hope for what we do not see,” and “wait for it with patience” (Rom 8:25). It does not exempt them from “the sufferings of this present time” (8:18). In fact, in view of their future “adoption as sons,” both believers and the personified cosmos wait “with eager longing” (8:19), “groan inwardly,” and “wait eagerly” (8:23).32 This “inward groaning” arises from two opposing sources: their Spirit-induced longing for complete
Thessalonians, 181. Consonant with this description of glorification, Murray describes it as “the complete and final redemption of the whole person when in the integrity of body and spirit the people of God will be conformed to the image of the risen, exalted, and glorified Redeemer, when the very body of their
humiliation will be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory,” Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 226. See also John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, vol. 1, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968), 319.
31For a discussions of the Spirit’s role in assuring believers, see Thomas R. Schreiner, The King in His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013), 556–57; F. F. Bruce, Romans: An Introduction and Commentary, 2nd ed., Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 156–58.
32Intersecting with the theme of fallen humans’ failure to exercise proper dominion over the cosmos, F. F. Bruce writes, “Even now man, who by selfish exploitation can turn the good earth into a dust bowl, can by responsible stewardship make the dessert blossom like the rose; what then will be the effect of a completely redeemed humanity on the creation entrusted to its care?” Bruce, Romans, 160–61. For Calvin, the “groaning” of the creation highlights the value of the believers’ intended state: “There is no element and no part of the world,” he writes, “which, touched with the knowledge of its present misery, is not intent on the hope of the resurrection. . . . From this too we see how immense is the price of eternal glory, which can excite and draw all things to desire it,” Calvin, The Epistles of Paul to the Romans and Thessalonians,172.
Christiformity, and the fact that it is yet to come. This tension unbelievers do not feel.
They hear no witness of the Spirit telling them they are sons and daughters of God.
Therefore, they feel no yearning for complete Christiformity. The “groaning” for Christlikeness pours only from the lips of believers—tenants of the overlapping domain between fallenness and complete Christiformity.
On the whole, however, this aching desire does not overshadow believers’
confident assurance. They “always struggle and yet emerge.”33 The Spirit remains as an ever-present witness to their glorious destiny (8:23).34 Therefore, they can be confident that life’s discordant notes will resolve into the anthem of God’s loving purposes (8:28).35 Further, God has etched the Christiformity of every believer in the granite of his
foreknowledge: “For those whom he foreknew,” Paul writes, “he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (8:29). The close of this chapter, in fact, swells with Paul’s confidence that the bond of God’s love for his children can never be broken: “I am sure,” Paul declares, “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (8:38-39).