• And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. [Romans 8:28-30]

God's purpose is His determination to glorify Himself in the salvation of a multitude of guilty sinners based on the righteousness of Christ. "Foreknow" here means "foreordained," or loved from all eternity. "Predestinate" means to determine in advance. And here we see God has provided every means to accomplish His purpose. Did you notice how the means provided are spoken of in past tense. This refers to all whom God predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, even those who had not yet been born. It is spoken of in past tense because it is predestined and, therefore, certain to be accomplished.

Some claim that foreknowledge has only to do with events, not people. But when foreknowledge is used in the Scriptures, it is never used in connection with events or actions. It always has reference to persons. When we speak of Divine foreordination, the eternal choice of certain ones to be conformed to the image of Christ (which is salvation), most people believe that God, at some point, took a look into the future and foresaw who would believe and who would reject Him. Therefore, God, based upon His learning who would believe, made His choice. He elected certain sinners because He foresaw what they would do. As we saw in the last lesson, this denies God's sovereignty, omniscience, grace, and wisdom.

I. THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE.

A. The word "foreknowledge" is not found in the Old Testament, but the word "know" is used many times and in different ways. When the word "know" is used in connection with God, it often means "to regard with favor." It is not simply a fact of knowledge, but an affection for the object in view.

• And the Lord said unto Moses, 'I will do this thing also that you have spoken; for you have found grace in my sight, and I KNOW you by name. [Exodus 33:17]



• Before I formed you in the belly I KNEW you; and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you, and I ordained you a prophet unto the nations. [Jeremiah 1:5]

In these passages the word "know" means either loved or appointed. The word "know" is often used in the New Testament in the same way.

• I am the good shepherd, and KNOW my sheep, and am known of mine. [John 10:14]

Here, Christ reveals the special knowledge He has of His sheep; i.e., He knows them with an everlasting love. God has revealed that He has a people, chosen out of this sinful, self-righteous, condemned race. He has revealed that He is going to save them based on the imputed righteousness of Christ. They will come to faith in Christ and true repentance, because God is not willing that any of them shall perish (John 10:25-30).

• Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord KNOWS them that are His (belong to Him). [2 Timothy 2:19]

The "foundation" of which Paul writes is the faith of God's people. The "seal" of this foundation is the fact that God "knows them that are His." It is the seal of God's foreordained, electing, everlasting love (His purpose to save them and bring them to glory based on the righteousness of Christ) that insures that all of His elect will believe, repent, persevere and be finally glorified in heaven. There is also the negative use of the word "know" in which our Lord said -

• Then will I profess unto them, I never KNEW you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity. [Matthew 7:23]

We know that Christ knows all men because He is God. But in the sense given here, He DID NOT know these; i.e., He never loved or appointed them unto eternal salvation. They were not foreordained unto eternal life. Someone may object, "But that means they had no chance, no opportunity to be saved." They had every chance and every responsibility to believe God's promise of eternal salvation conditioned on Christ alone, but they refused and continued to believe salvation conditioned on themselves against God's revealed word and promise. Some accuse God of being unjust and unfair in this matter. To understand this mystery and vindicate God from this charge we need to make the distinction we made in the last lesson between God's revealed will by way of command and God's secret will or decrees. Remember, "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us" (Deut. 29:29).

God's revealed will by way of commandment is every person's rule of conduct. God's secret will is His predetermined counsel and decree concerning all things that come to pass. Here is where we see the reality of God's foreknowledge. God foreknows what will be because He has determined what shall be. This is the nature of God's dealings in creation, providence, and salvation. If this were not true, we could not truly believe that "all things" work together for good concerning God's children.

For example, the salvation of sinners was no afterthought or contingency plan devised by God as if Satan surprised Him and brought about the fall of Adam. Salvation is the product of the "everlasting covenant of grace" (Hebrews 13:20). This is an eternal covenant made between the Father and Son before the world was created. How could this covenant be pre-determined if the fall were not pre-determined? Someone might object, "Are you saying that God decreed the entrance of sin into His universe?" Yes! To affirm that God decreed the entrance of sin into His universe, and that He foreordained all its fruits and activities may shock us at first. But if we think about it, it is more shocking to insist that sin has invaded God's dominions against His sovereign will, and that its exercise is outside His jurisdiction. This would put sin and Satan on an equal plane with God and holiness. To recognize that God has foreordained all the activities of evil is to see that He is the Governor of sin. His will determines its exercise, His power regulates its bounds.

This does not mean God is the author of sin, nor are angels or men to be excused for rebelling against God. Man willingly disobeys God and therefore deserves punishment. God must act consistently with His nature, and He is holy. God cannot sin nor can He approve of sin. God is neither inspires nor infuses sin into any creature, but He is its Master. God's management of the wicked is so complete that they can do nothing except that which His counsel from everlasting determined to be done. So, though nothing contrary to holiness can ever flow from God, yet He has for His own wise purpose ordained His creatures to fall into sin. Had sin never been permitted, how could the holiness and justice of God have been displayed in punishing sin? How could the wisdom, love, and grace of God have been revealed in overruling sin by bringing in an everlasting righteousness of infinite value in the Person and work of Christ?

This is the only way it can truly be said that "all things work together for good." "All things" includes all things evil and good. He does not say all things are good. He says "all things work together for good" with those who are called according to God's purpose. The "good" is eternal, ultimate good. Bad things are always inherently evil. Sin is sin, evil is evil, and neither will change. Yet we can be confident that God sovereignly overrules whatever is bad to work it out for our eternal good. That includes all suffering, all temptation, all sin.

We can see this in so many Scriptural examples. Consider Joseph and his brethren, how they wickedly plotted to get rid of him. They sinned against God's revealed commandment. They were fully responsible to love their brother as they loved themselves. They were fully accountable for their actions. Yet, when it was all over and they realized what they had done, God showed how He overruled their evil for ultimate good -

• But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. [Genesis 50:20]

David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah murdered. David's rule of obedience was "thou shalt not commit adultery," and "thou shalt not kill." This was God's revealed will by way of commandment. But it was through David's adultery that Solomon was born, and through Solomon continued the lineage of David from which Jesus came. God overruled David's evil for ultimate good. This does not excuse David's actions, and it does not mean that David did not suffer the consequences of such actions. David did all of this out self-love. But God meant it for good. David finally realized how he had sinned against God, and he realized that his salvation could only be certain based on the righteousness of Christ -

• Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. [2 Samuel 23:5]

The covenant of promise is ordered and sure in all things because it is an absolute and unconditional covenant towards sinners. God chose a people and gave them to Christ. Christ became incarnate and earned salvation for them. Why God chose some and not others, we do not know. But we do know all whom He chose, all for whom Christ died, will hear the Gospel, believe and repent. God foreknows that His elect will believe and repent because He has chosen them in His determinate counsel and provided all the means necessary for their salvation.

Now God has revealed the impossibility of any sinner being saved based on anything other than righteousness. God has revealed that He sent His Son to establish the only righteousness whereby He can be just and justify the ungodly. God's commands all who hear this promise to believe and repent. But sinners, because of self-righteousness, self-love and religious pride, continue to seek salvation based on something other than the righteousness of Christ. The motivation for this unbelief does not come from God. It comes from the sinful, self-righteous heart. God is in every way just to punish them for their sins which were in direct rebellion against His Gospel.

B. The word "foreknowledge" should never be mistaken as to its meaning in the New Testament. Remember, it pertains to persons.

(1) Romans 8:29-30 -- Those whom God set His love upon before time were guilty sinners. They by nature had no qualities to recommend them unto God. God loved beforehand those who were guilty and corrupt, dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:4,5). Nothing outside of God Himself moved or influenced Him to save sinners. It was His love and purpose to glorify Himself that caused Him to save sinners. Foreknowledge and predestination are distinguished. The one is God's choice of persons, and the other is the destination of those persons to all the blessings intended. To predestinate is to determine or appoint beforehand to some particular end or goal. God determined beforehand that all the objects of His love would be perfectly conformed to the image of His Son. This begins in time in regeneration and conversion and will be fully realized in our final glorification.

We are told that all who were elected before time are called and justified in time. In our calling and justification, God testifies openly of His hidden purpose. Calling and justification can be distinguished but they cannot be separated. Those who are called are called unto justification and life. None are effectually called who are not also justified. We are called by God' Gospel which reveals the only ground of justification, the righteousness of Christ. We are justified by faith which truly receives and pleads the righteousness of Christ revealed in God's Gospel. Christ's righteousness removes God's wrath, gains His favor and fellowship, and entitles us to eternal life, all of which makes up our justification before God.

(2) Acts 2:23 --

• Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.

This verse speaks of God's foreknowledge of the Person crucified, not the act of crucifixion. The act of crucifixion was determined beforehand, decreed in eternity past. God "declares the end from the beginning." Christ was the "Lamb slain from the foundation." But the point is that God's foreknowledge is His electing love whereby He chose a people and conditioned all of their salvation on Christ alone. Here, Christ, whom God loved and appointed beforehand, was delivered into the hands of wicked men. They broke God's revealed command when they killed Christ, but God had before decreed the crucifixion to overrule the fall of man in the salvation of sinners by Christ. These men were fully responsible to obey God, but they refused because of their own wicked hearts. In carrying out their evil motives, God glorified Himself in the death of His Son. God is just to punish sinners for their evil. (cf. Acts 4:26-28)

(3) Romans 11:2 --

• God has not cast away His people which He FOREKNEW.

God has not cast away His people WHICH HE FOREKNEW, among the Jews nor the Gentiles. Those whom God foreknew are the objects of His eternal love and grace. The nation Israel was chosen from among the nations. They were called the people of God and were temporally blessed as a nation with the promises, the prophets, the law and the sacrifices. But not all were foreknown, as most of them perish in unbelief, rejecting salvation by grace. Out of this nation which, as a whole, rejected Christ and His righteousness and refused to repent from dead works, there was an elect remnant, and they shall be saved. They shall hear and believe God's Gospel.

(4) 1 Peter 1:2 --

• Elect according to the FOREKNOWLEDGE of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.

These verses all support the truth that God alone is the only Source of salvation, His electing love is the only cause of salvation, and Christ's righteousness alone is the only ground of salvation. God's glory is the ultimate goal of salvation.

C. The above passages are the only ones where the word "foreknowledge" is found; therefore, upon what Scriptural ground can anyone say that God foreknew the acts of certain ones believing and repenting, and that based on these acts, God elected them unto salvation? The only ground for making such a claim is the pride of men in insisting that salvation in some way conditioned upon self. The Scriptures never speak of faith and repentance as being foreseen by God. They are the gifts of God's grace. They are the fruit and effect of Christ's whole work of mediation. It is true that God has known from all eternity that certain ones would believe and repent, but this is the fruit and effect of God's foreknowledge and foreordination, His electing love. God purposed in Himself to choose a people not because of anything good in them or from them, either actual or foreseen, but solely out of His own good pleasure in Christ (Ephesians 1:2-12).

II. THE IMPLICATIONS OF DENYING GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE.

A. To believe that God's foreknowledge is based upon His foreseeing into the future who would or would not believe, and, thereupon, reacting to this, is to dishonor every attribute of God's character. First, it destroys God's omniscience (the fact that God knows all). It claims that God had to look into the future in order to find out some things. It makes God a learner, therefore, it assigns imperfection to God.

It, therefore, denies God's holiness, because if you assign imperfection to any one of God's attributes, you deny His holiness. Holiness means absolute perfection in every attribute and will not allow the least imperfection in any attribute. It denies God's infinite wisdom, because infinite wisdom must of necessity be accompanied by infinite knowledge. It denies God's sovereignty because it teaches that God depends on and is influenced by things outside Himself. It makes His decrees and actions rest on what He learns about the creature. It denies God's love, because God's love is His purpose to save sinners conditioned on Christ alone, without any consideration of or contribution from the sinner, along with God's provision of every means to accomplish this purpose.

Some say that God loves all without exception, and that He sent Christ to die for all without exception, but He only saves those whom He foresaw would believe. This puts no value upon God's love, in and of itself, nor upon Christ's death, in and of itself. It makes God's love and Christ's death less valuable, less effective and less productive than the sinner's foreseen faith. God's love is His purpose to save sinners by Christ.

These thoughts also deny God's mercy and grace, which is God's free, unmerited favor, revealed in our salvation conditioned on Christ alone, without the deeds of the law. This notion of God choosing based on foreseen faith makes salvation conditioned on the sinner's faith, repentance, and perseverance, and not upon the blood, the death, the very righteousness of Christ alone. This would mean that the sinner makes the difference in salvation, not God in Christ. This would mean that the sinner's believing is the cause of God electing and saving him. Sinners make themselves to differ, not God. This also denies God's immutability, because if God reacts, He changes. And if He changes, He is not holy and perfect. If He changes, He must change for the better or for the worse. These notions destroy God's faithfulness. If God promises to save anyone, and anyone whom He promises to save ends up in eternal hell, then God is unfaithful to His promise.

B. To believe that God's foreknowledge is based upon His foreseeing into the future who would or would not believe, and, thereupon, reacting to this, is to deny the real sinnerhood of man (totally depraved), and to deny that salvation which God has provided in and through Christ. It is to give the sinner room for boasting. If this were true, those who believed, repented and persevere could say that this made the difference, not the blood and righteousness of Christ. Christ, really, would be only the pedestal upon which sinners could boast in their exercising their free will.

C. People may ask, "If God foreknows all things in this way, and He has predetermined these things, then how can He hold men responsible? Also, how can we tell men and women, sincerely and truthfully, that God will save them based on the righteousness of Christ, all who believe this promise?" We read in Romans 8:28-29 how that God not only foreknew and predetermined these things, but that He has provided all necessary means to accomplish His purpose of grace, AND IT IS THESE MEANS WHEREBY GOD HOLDS MEN RESPONSIBLE AND VINDICATES HIMSELF IN HIS JUDGMENT OF ETERNAL DAMNATION UPON ALL WHO REFUSE TO BELIEVE AND REPENT!

There is no greater proof of God's love than the fact that He chose a people and provided everything necessary for their salvation and final glory in that He conditioned all of their salvation and final glory upon Christ alone. The problem with man is that his pride will not allow him to admit that God is the Author and Finisher of salvation. If God had never chosen a people, none would have ever chosen Him. We would have chosen and continued to have chosen a god of our imagination. We would continue to exalt ourselves, not God. By nature, we have no fear of God before our eyes.

Sinners are in need of a righteousness we cannot produce -- perfect satisfaction to God's holy law and justice. Apart from such a righteousness there is nothing but wrath and condemnation for any sinner. The Gospel reveals this need and the provision of this need by God in the Person and work of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To receive this means that you must renounce anything and everything else you ever thought could recommend you unto God. To receive Christ is to admit that up until the time you heard this Gospel and received His righteousness imputed, you worshiped an idol and all your efforts were fruit unto death. God's purpose is that all His elect come to repentance. You are commanded and fully warranted to believe God's promise and reject all else. This is the way God saves His elect. There is no other way. This is the evidence of being one of God's elect.

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