"THE
FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD"
"Elect according to the foreknowledge of God
the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.”
-- 1 Peter 1:2
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 to be determined not by the will of God
but by the will of man. Satan's messengers of deceit, in their utter contempt
for the glory of God and great admiration for the "dignity of man's
free-will," tell us that God's foreknowledge is foreseen faith and
obedience in men. They tell us that "God foresaw from eternity which
sinners would be willing to respond favorably to the gentle impulses of the
Holy Spirit upon their hearts. Therefore, because God knew some would believe,
he predestinated them to salvation and elected them to eternal life."
Is
this what Peter means when he declares that all believers are "elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father?" 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 the work of God’s free grace in Christ.
It is a denial of man's total depravity, for it declares that there is
something good and noble in some men, -- a natural willingness in some to trust
Christ. It denies the sovereignty of God, for it makes God's purpose of grace
in election and predestination to be determined by and conditioned upon the
will of the sinner. It turns the whole work of grace upside down. Free-willers
tell us that God predestinated some to salvation because he foreknew they would
repent and trust Christ, while others would not.
The
Book of God says exactly the opposite. Read Acts 13:48. -- "And when the Gentiles heard (the Gospel
of God’s saving grace and glory in Christ), they were glad, and glorified
the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."
False
religion makes God's foreknowledge of man's faith the cause of election and
grace. But the Word of God affirms that God's election and grace is the cause
of man's faith (Eph. 1:3-14). We who believe God, believe because we were
foreordained unto eternal life before the worlds were made.
What
is the importance of this distinction? If God chose us to salvation because of
what he foreknew we would do, then the difference between those who are saved
and those who are lost is man's free-will and man has a right to boast before
God. If however, as the Bible universally declares, our faith is the fruit of
God's election, then the difference between the saved and the lost is a
difference which grace has made. And God alone shall have all praise.
"Who maketh thee to differ from another?” How do you
answer? Do you make yourself to differ; or has God alone made you to differ? “What
hast thou that thou didst not receive?” Anything? Every child of God readily
replies, “No! All that I have, God gave me. All that I am in Christ, God made
me to be!” “Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou
hadst not received it?” (1 Cor. 4:7).