"Whom He Did Foreknow"
Romans 8:28
God's foreknowledge is much, much more than a prior knowledge of what people will or will not do and be. Certainly, the Lord God does know from eternity all things about all people because he is omniscient - He knows all things. Nothing is hidden from God. Nothing takes him by surprise. God never learned anything. He just knows. He is omniscient. But God's omniscience must never be confused with his foreknowledge. Omniscience is an attribute of God. Foreknowledge is an act of God.
GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE IS
OF PERSONS, NOT THINGS. Paul does not say, "What he did
foreknow," but "Whom he did
foreknow!" God's foreknowledge of his elect is his everlasting love
for them (Jer. 31:3). God knows his elect from eternity as he knows no one else
(Matt.
GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE
IMPLIES HIS ETERNAL ELECTION AND OWNERSHIP OF HIS PEOPLE. We are "elect according to the foreknowledge
of God" (I Pet. 1:2). When the Scriptures speak of
God's knowledge of anything or anyone in a special, distinctly gracious way,
the implication is that of God’s ownership and approval (Psa. 1:6; John
GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE
CERTAINLY INVOLVES HIS FOREORDINATION OF HIS ELECT UNTO SALVATION AND ETERNAL
LIFE IN CHRIST. It includes both determination and control. In fact, the
word translated "foreknowledge”
in I Peter 1:2 is translated "foreordained"
in I Peter 1:20 (See Acts
GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE IS
THE INFALLIBLE SECURITY OF HIS ELECT (II Tim.
Don Fortner