Luck doesn’t save from the sidelines.

In fact, luck doesn’t save at all. Luck isn’t even in the game. It’s an illusion. In Romans 8:29-30, the apostle Paul writes, “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 and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

The direct audience of this letter was being appealed to by Paul to see beyond the established law that had been overcome by Jesus Christ and now the opportunity to live in the Spirit thanks to the work of Jesus Christ.

The old ways of living solely under a law no one (save Christ) was righteous enough to fulfill left room for things like luck, chance, or surprise.

As soon as the reader in Rome of this letter could feel convicted by the pairing of “conformed to the image of his Son” with “he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters”, this reader could be thinking… the Lord has taken luck off the table! God predestined the plan for Christ, so that believers would be called, justified, then glorified. The plan is good, and two thousand years later, we are a part of it.

I see the word “might” as the tripwire tied to our repentance. I don’t personally believe we decide to follow per se, but I do think we decide to repent.

Repentance to God puts us into the only game that matters, the only game with eternal stakes, the only game where our poor stats are acceptable as part of the winning strategy. Then by grace through faith we believe through Scripture in Christ alone for God’s glory alone.

Verse 17, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs — heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” There is no luck in the promise. The “if” is our repentance, the “then” is the promise.