The FOREKNOWLEDGE of God.
Geoffrey R. Kirkland, Pastor
*This is part 5 in the ongoing series on the attributes of God!
For God to foreknow something means more than just God knowing an event *before it takes place*. The foreknowledge of God is a personal, relational, loving, intimate reality. it is an attribute of God that speaks of His sovereign choosing to set his love upon an object. For those whom God foreknew, these He predestined (Romans 8:28-29).
In the Scriptures, to know someone often speaks of more than just knowledge about some facts. It speaks of relational nearness and closeness. Adam knew Eve his wife (Genesis 4.1). Jesus knows His own sheep by name (John 10:14). Jesus will say to the unbelievers: “Depart from me… I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23). These verses speak of more than just informational facts, but a real nearness and intimacy (or lack thereof for the unbelievers) with Jesus Christ.
Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20). That means that the Father had a perfect plan with Jesus in perfect, relational, intimate love for Him to come and suffer and die for us. Jesus was delivered over by the foreknowledge of God (Acts 2.23). This is more than just God *knowing* something ahead of time. He had a real, close, perfect, intimate plan with the Son to come and save sinners.
Why is someone a Christian? It’s because God sovereignly, lovingly, tenderly, and particularly foreknew us. Why is someone converted and a child of God? Because God relationally set his intimate care and watchful love upon a particular few. This is the foreknowledge of God. What peace of heart this brings. What comfort to doubting souls! What hope this provides for wandering hearts. You, as a foreknown child of God can say: I am eternally loved, eternally kept, eternally His, eternally united to God through Jesus Christ. This is the sweet and saving foreknowledge of God. Let this calm your heart, comfort your soul, compel you to godly obedience, and cast away every fear. Your security of entering heaven is not about your strong hold on Christ but on His sovereign foreknowledge and intimate love for you — a love that He set upon you infinite eternities ago. And he did it by love! Rejoice!
