Paul in the Letter to the Romans refers on a recurrent theme in the Theology of the Fathers of the Church: the Providence and the predestination:

God works for the good of those who love him. Romans 8:28

The Theology of Thomas Aquinas tells us that there is a human destiny and a divine predestination, the first has to do with human choices and the second with the divine Prudence that everything disposes. Remember that from the pont of view of the Theology God exists from an eternal present, we can not apply temporal concepts to God, this is only applicable to finite creatures. Eternity is the simultaneous possession of all time: past, present and future, Suma Teologiae of Thomas Aquinas.
God is the wisest, God is the wisdom itself and the main function of the wise is to order and direct as Aristotle says: "corresponds to the wise to order", "corresponds to the wise to led and not be lead", then Thomas Aquinas adds: "Everything that comes from God is ordered". Wisdom order because being perfect seeks perfection and order is a consequence because it is a perfection. God as wise as he is, orders and disposes according to Providence.
God provides, God promise to those who love him. The Likeness seeks the  likeness, as the old greek refrain says.  To love God is to love good, is to do things right for the right itself. Doing things right, to love God, love well, is to act without error, it is to act with precision and accuracy, is to improve permanently, is constantly perfecting. The law of return acts, "you reap what you sow". The Law of Return rewards constructive actions, edify actions. The laws of God expressed in the Beatitudes promise blessings to those who seek excellence and curse for those who practice the error. Peace and eternal life for the blessed and death for the sinners as Romans 6:23 says; the pay of error is death, the pay of the retitude is life. Ultimately we choose between good and evil, we choose between life and death.