THE
ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
Lesson #5
Divine
Foreknowledge 1 Peter 1:2
Peter
declares that all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ unto life everlasting
are “Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” How we rejoice in God’s electing
love! God’s gracious, sovereign election of our unworthy souls unto salvation
is the source and cause of every heavenly, spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3-4).
Christ redeemed us because God elected us. The Holy Spirit called us and gave
us faith because God elected us. We are kept by the power of his grace because
God elected us. We shall obtain and enter into the glory of our inheritance in
heaven because God elected us unto salvation, that he might make us holy and
without blame forever in his sight, to the praise of the glory of his grace. We
rejoice in God’s electing love!
“Tis not that
I did choose Thee, For, Lord, that could not be.
This heart
would still refuse Thee, Hadst Thou not chosen me.
Thou from the
sin that stained me Hast washed and set me free,
And to this
end ordained me, That I should live to Thee.
`Twas sovereign
mercy called me And taught my opening mind;
The world had
else enthralled me, To heavenly glories blind.
My heart owns
none before Thee, For Thy rich grace I thirst,
This knowing,
if I love Thee, Thou must have loved me first.”
In
this text Peter tells us four things about our election of God. 1. Election is an act of God the Father. There
are some men and women in this world who must and shall be saved, because God
the Father chose them in eternal election (2 Thess. 2:13-14). The names of
God’s elect were written in the Lamb’s book of life from eternity. And in the
end of time they will all be found seated before the throne of God and of the
Lamb, arrayed in the white robe of Christ’s perfect righteousness. We do not
know who God’s elect are. Therefore, we preach the gospel to all men, calling
upon all to repent and believe on Christ. As soon as a sinner believes on
Christ, confessing faith in him, we declare, “Here is one of God’s elect.”
Faith in Christ is the fruit and the proof of God’s election. If you now
believe on Christ, you are “Elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” You now believe because
God before the foundation of the world chose you in Christ as the object of his
eternal love and grace.
2. Our election by God the Father
was “through sanctification of the
Spirit.” The word “sanctification”
simply means “to separate.” Before the world began God the Holy Spirit
separated us from the rest of Adam’s race and separated us unto God, making us
holy. Sanctified men and women are holy people, holy because they belong to
God. Our sanctification is threefold. All who believe have been sanctified to
God in Christ...
·
By election, which gave us positional righteousness (Jude
1),
·
By redemption, which gave us judicial righteousness (Heb.
10:10-14),
·
And by regeneration, which gave us imparted righteousness
(II Pet. 1:4).
3. This election of grace which took place
in eternity was unto salvation. Election is not salvation. Election is unto
salvation. We were chosen “unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” The obedience Peter is
talking about is not our obedience to God, but Christ’s obedience to God as our
Representative by which we are made righteous (Rom. 5:19). And the sprinkling
of the blood of Christ refers to the accomplishment of redemption by which our
sins have been put away. It refers both to the sprinkling of the blood in
heaven upon the mercy-seat (Heb. 9:11-12) and to the sprinkling of the blood
upon our consciences in conversion (Heb. 9:13-14). Though election guaranteed
and secured our salvation by the grace of God, we could not be saved without
the obedience and death of Christ as our Substitute; and we could not be saved
apart from the application of Christ’s atonement to our own hearts by the
Spirit.
4. And our election, Peter tells us
is, “According to the foreknowledge of
God the Father.” What is this “foreknowledge”? That is the question I want to
answer in this study. It is a matter of great importance. Though divine
foreknowledge is not really an attribute of God, it is an act of God’s grace
intimately related to his attribute of omniscience. It is a subject so commonly
misunderstood by men that it needs to be carefully explained from the Word of
God. It is the common practice of false prophets to pervert God’s foreknowledge
into a denial of his total sovereignty in salvation, making election and grace
conditional not upon the will of God, but upon the will of man. Such teaching
contradicts the plainest statements of Holy Scripture. The Bible plainly
declares that salvation is not, in any way, dependent upon or conditioned upon
the will of man (John 1:13; Rom. 9:16). Yet, satan’s messengers of deceit, in
their effort to uphold the great “free-will” of man and to deny the sovereignty
of God’s grace, tell us that God’s foreknowledge is foreseen faith and
obedience in man!
They
tell us that God foresaw that some sinners would be willing to respond
favorably to the gentle impulses of the Holy Spirit upon their hearts.
Therefore, because God knew they would believe, he predestinated them to
salvation and elected them as the objects of his grace. Is this what Peter
means when he declares that we are “elect
according to the foreknowledge of God”? Of course not! Such perverse
doctrine has the slime of the serpent’s tail upon it. It is a base perversion
of the grace of God. It is the doctrine of antichrist, for it makes salvation
the work of man rather than of God in Christ. It is a denial of man’s total depravity, for it suggests that there
is something good and noble in some men, a willingness to trust Christ by
nature. It denies the sovereignty of
God, for it makes God’s election to be determined by the will of the
sinner. It frustrates the grace of God, turning
the whole work of grace upside down. We are told that because God foresaw that
some people would believe in Christ he predestinated them to eternal life. But
the Bible says exactly the opposite (Acts 13:48). False religion makes God’s
foreknowledge of man’s faith the cause of election and grace. But the Word of
God declares that God’s election and grace is the cause of our faith. Though
God’s foreknowledge of his elect in Christ has been terribly perverted by those
who despise the gospel of his free and sovereign grace in Christ, it is a
matter of comfort and joy to the believer. It inspires praise and honor toward
our God. Study it carefully in the light of Holy Scripture and you will find it
both edifying and comforting to your soul.
WE CANNOT COMPREHEND DIVINE
FOREKNOWLEDGE BY HUMAN REASON. What does the word “foreknowledge”
mean? If you take down a dictionary and look the word up, you will find that it
means “knowledge of a thing before it happens; prescience.” But if you try to
apply that definition to the word, as it is used in the Bible, it will not
work. We must interpret the words of
Scripture as they are used by the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures. The Holy
Spirit’s use of a word always defines its meaning and scope. For example: The word “flesh” does not
usually mean the physical body, but the Adamic nature (Rom. 7:18). The word
“world” does not usually refer to the whole human race, but to a specific part
of it (Lk. 2:1; John 3:16). “Immortality” does not merely refer to the
indestructibility of the soul, but to the resurrection body as well (I Cor.
15:51-57). And the word “all” does not mean all without exception, but all of a
specific number (Rom. 5:18-19). In the Bible the words “knowledge,” “know,” and
“foreknowledge” have a much deeper meaning than “to be aware of.” The word
“foreknowledge” is never used in the Old Testament. But, the word “know” is
often used to describe God’s gracious favor and affection for his people. God’s
knowledge, in this sense, is not a possession of his nature, but an act of his
will (Ex. 33:17; Deut. 9:24; Jer. 1:5; Amos 3:2). In all these places the word
“know” means “to love” or “to appoint.” The word “know” is used in precisely
the same way in the New Testament (Matt. 7:23; John 10:14; I Cor. 8:3; II Tim.
2:19). God’s foreknowledge of his elect is his love for them. It is an act of
God’s heart, which separates and distinguishes his elect from all others.
GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE IS NEVER RELATED
TO EVENTS, THINGS, OR ACTS, BUT ALWAYS TO PEOPLE. Look up every
text where the word “foreknowledge” is used. You will see that the Bible never
speaks of God foreknowing world events or the actions of men. It only speaks of
God foreknowing people (Acts 2:23; Rom. 8:29-30; 11:2; 1 Pet. 1:2). The word
“foreknowledge” is found only in these four places in our English Bible. We do
not read, in any of these, that God foreknew that some people would repent and
believe on Christ, or that he elected to save some because he foreknew that
they would be willing to be saved. God foreknew his own elect. In every place
where “foreknowledge” is used, it means that he loved, approved of, and
accepted his elect in Christ, and foreordained us to be conformed to his image.
THE BASIS OF GOD’S FOREKNOWLEDGE IS
HIS OWN ETERNAL DECREE. God’s foreknowledge is not the cause of his decree. His
decree is the cause of his foreknowledge. God’s foreknowledge of Christ as our
Substitute was the result of his determinate counsel that Christ be our
Substitute (Acts 2:23). God’s foreknowledge of us as his sons is the result of
his decree of election by which he purposed to make us his sons (Rom. 8:28-29).
God foreknew us because he elected us. He predestinated us to be his sons, not
because he foreknew we would be; but he foreknew us as his sons because he
predestinated us to be his sons (I John 3:1). Why is this so important? To make
foreseen or foreknown faith the cause of election would be to declare that (1.)
Faith is a meritorious act; (2.) God’s grace is determined by the will of man;
(3.) Man is his own savior; (4.) The difference between the saved sinner and
the lost sinner is not the grace of God, but the free-will of man; and (5.) God
must share the glory of salvation with man, because man’s decision is
ultimately the determining factor in salvation. Such absurdities are blatantly
contrary to the revelation of Holy Scripture. God’s saints affirm and rejoice
to know that “Salvation is of the Lord.” With
the Apostle Paul, every regenerate sinner says, “By the grace of God I am what I am”. We were chosen by grace (Rom.
11:5). We were redeemed by grace (Rom. 3:24). We were called by grace (Tit.
3:4-5). We “believed through grace” (Acts
18:27). And we are kept by grace (I Pet. 1:5).
DIVINE FOREKNOWLEDGE IS A SOURCE OF
GREAT COMFORT AND CHEER TO GOD’S PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD. If
foreknowledge were nothing but what God foreknew we would do or be by our own
free-will, what possible comfort could we find in it? Thank God, it is not so.
But when we understand, according to the Scriptures, that God’s foreknowledge
is his immutable love and approval of us in Christ, our hearts rejoice (II Tim.
2:19). Those whom God foreknew he will never cast away. In the midst of our
trials, our souls are sustained in peace by God’s foreknowledge (Nah. 1:7). We
rejoice in our knowledge of God, but our hope and confidence is in God’s knowledge
of us. He knows us in Christ. He loves us in Christ. He approves of us in
Christ. He accepts us in Christ. Child of God, your heavenly Father’s foreknowledge of you ought to fill your heart
with cheer. God knows who you are, what you are, where you are, what you need,
and what he will do with you. But this is even better - He knows you! That is
enough!