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Predestination: Part 3:
Foreknew
“For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30). The five terms in Rom. 8:29–30—foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified—form a chain “connecting God’s gracious purpose in the eternity past with its consummation in the eternity to come.” Verse 28 moves from the problems of this life to God’s counsels and work in eternity past and future—from foreknowing to glorifying. In the midst is the wonderful v. 29, which has been for so many an encouragement to confident trust. But the reason for the promises of vv. 28 and 31–39 is God’s sovereign purpose in election. God’s providence depends on His elective work, that is, His choosing. When we have problems with election, we should keep in mind that this passage teaches that our blessings depend on it!
What does the term foreknowledge mean? This is an important question, because it is the most misunderstood of the five words and the key to the rest, since it starts the sequence. Whatever benefits there are in the following verses depend on it. The crucial question is: did God simply see ahead of time that some would believe and call them the “elect,” or did He plan for their faith, too? (Karleen, Paul S.: The Handbook to Bible Study : With a Guide to the Scofield Study System. New York : Oxford University Press, 1987).
Foreknow, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 11th ed., is “to have previous knowledge of; to know beforehand especially by paranormal means or by revelation” syn see FORESEE — foreknowledge. Foreknow in the scriptures goes further than the traditional definition. He foreknew you before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8; 17:8; John 17:24; Hebrews 4:3 Ephesians 1:4; Matthew 25:34). Before you were ever formed the Lord loved you. From afar He foreknew you. As the Word has said, “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him” (Psalm 103:13). He remembers your frame that you are but the dust of the earth. Behold, the midst of your frailty, the Lord would comfort you that He loves you.
This creation was not an afterthought with God; He knew beforehand. The 139th psalm says in essence that God wrote your name in a book before you were ever formed or brought forth in the lower parts of the earth. Do we understand what God is doing? Do we know that He foreknew us? For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His son. Romans 8:29. We’re going to be to the praise of His glory, the heritage of God, an exhibit of His grace (Stevens, John Robert: This Week, Volume II (1971). North Hollywood, CA. : Living Word Publications, 1981, S. 98).
Foreknow is emphasized in several scriptures in the bible. Romans 11:2 says: “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew”. 1 Peter 1:1-2, 20-21 says: “PETER, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure…. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” ( See also 1 Corinthians 8:3; 2 Timothy 1:9).
Several other biblical passages aid our understanding of this point. In Jeremiah 1:5 the same concept of “knowing” is present (see also Gen. 18:19). It cannot simply mean “to know about,” but must describe a personal relationship. Certainly God “knew about” Israel before her founding (in Gen. 12); there must be more than that. In Amos 3:2 the Hebrew word behind the “known” of the King James Version is appropriately rendered “chosen” by the New International Version. In Rom. 11:2 the same base word as Amos 3:2 and Rom. 8:29 is used (the prefix differs). Once again the concept is the same, and we could legitimately translate the word as “plan for.”
The idea of simply knowing about the people of Israel ahead of time does not make sense here (i.e. knowing about them or knowing they would do something). Besides, the crucial question in Rom. 11:1ff is, if God planned for them is “why aren’t they blessed now?” This is like the idea expressed in Amos 3:2: God “planned for” a people to have a special relationship with Him. In 1 Pet. 1:19–20 there is, first of all, a term found in the —foreordination—that does not correspond to the Greek word proginoskō, usually translated elsewhere “foreknow.” What, however, is the meaning of the foreknowing here? It would not make sense to say here that God knew about Christ ahead of time. That goes without saying. The translators of the New International Version have rendered this as “chosen.” This indicates more clearly that before the creation of the world God planned for Christ to have the role of the sacrificial lamb. A final passage is Acts 2:23, where God’s foreknowledge is the instrument, along with His counsel (they are grammatically parallel in the verse), of handing Christ over to the cross. Foreknowledge could only be instrumental if it involved planning.
The Book of Life was written from the foundations of the earth. Revelation 13:8-10 presents an almost fatalistic picture of the end time. However consider: All inhabitants of the earth worship the beast except for those whose names are recorded in the book of life. In the expression the Lamb that was slain from the Creation of the world, the words “from the Creation of the world” seem, as in the NIV margin, to relate to the time in eternity past when the names were written in the book of life, rather than to Christ’s crucifixion, since He was not crucified when the world was created. As Paul wrote, those who were saved were foreordained to salvation before Creation (cf. Eph. 1:4).
Some hold that the book of life originally contained the names of every living person to be born in the world, and that the names of the unsaved get blotted out when they die. This interpretation stems from Revelation 3:5 where Christ promised the believers in Sardis that their names would not be erased from the book of life, and from 22:19, where a person who rejects the messages in the Book of Revelation is warned that “God will take away from him his share in the tree of life” (cf. “tree of life” in 2:7 and 22:2, 14 and “book of life” in 3:5; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27). However, 13:8 probably means that those who are saved had their names written in the book of life in eternity past in anticipation of the death of Christ on the cross for them and that they will never be erased (Walvoord, John F. (1985). Revelation. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 961). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books)
Of one thing we can be sure. To all believers God foreknew them from the foundation of the world. This cannot be taken from the true believer. As said above this does not mean God knew “about them” but intimately “knew them” as a husband knows his wife. As Psalm 139 says: “O LORD, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, And art intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, Thou dost know it all…For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Thy book they were all written, The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them” (verses 1-4, 13-16).
©Kenneth B. Alexander, JD
Scriptures: The New American Standard Bible, 1986 ed. Unless otherwise indicated
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