01.017. THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD
Lesson Fifteen THE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF GOD Scripture Reading: Romans 8:26-30.
Scripture To Memorize: “For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).
10. Q. What do we mean by the foreknowledge of God?
A. By the foreknowledge of God, we mean His knowledge from eternity of the events and developments in His moral universe.
(1) Foreknowledge ordinarily means the knowledge of events in advance of their happening. With God it means knowledge from eternity of the events and developments in connection with the working out of His eternal purpose and plan. (2) Knowledge from eternity means knowledge which was held prior to the inauguration of the moral universe. Ephesians 1:4—“even as he (God) chose us in him (Christ) before the foundation of the world.” Matthew 25:34—“the kingdom prepared . . . from the foundation of the world.” 1 Peter 1:20—“Christ who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world,” etc. (3) “Two things are evident as demonstration itself. The first—that all the purposes and promises of God are in Christ—in reference to Him, and consummated in Him and by Him; and, in the second place, they were all contemplated, covenanted and systematized in Him and through Him before the foundation of the world” (A. Campbell, The Christian System, p. 32). Again: “The phrase pro and apo katabole kosmou, found ten times in the New Testament, literally indicates the foundation of the world. We quote Ephesians 1:4, Matthew 25:34, 1 Peter 1:20, as unequivocally declarative of this” (ibid., p. 33, fn.). (4) 2 Timothy 1:9—“according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal,” etc. Cf. John 17:5; John 17:24.
11. Q. What did God evidently foreknow with reference to His moral creatures?
A. He evidently foreknew that they would lapse into sin and would consequently stand in need of salvation.
(1) We cannot say definitely of course that this was true with respect to the angels, but it was undoubtedly true with respect to man. (2) God evidently foreknew, even before He created the world and man, that man would lapse into sin; and in the light of this foreknowledge He foreordained all the essential features of the Plan of Redemption. (3) 1 Peter 1:1-2—“elect . . . according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” Acts 2:23—“him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (the reference here is to Christ). 1 Peter 1:20—“Christ who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake,” etc. (4) We cannot conceive of omniscience without foreknowledge of such important matters as these; nor can we conceive of the true and living God as making experiments.
12. Q. What is the connection between God’s foreknowledge and His eternal purpose and plan?
A. It seems obvious that His eternal purpose and plan were formed with the likelihood in prospect that man would lapse into sin and stand in need of salvation.
(1) Before man was created the likelihood of his lapse into sin was evidently contemplated, and the eternal purpose and plan of the creator for a holy race were evidently originated with this eventuality in view. Hence we find that the first intimation of redemption was given immediately after the temptation and fall of our first parents. See Genesis 3:15. (2) “Evident then it is, that the whole remedial or gospel system was purposed, arranged and established upon the basis of the revealed distinctions of Father, Son and Holy Spirit; and by these, in reference to one another, before the foundation of the world; and that all the institutions and developments of religion in the different ages of the world were, in pursuance of that system, devised in eternity, and consummated some two thousand years ago” (Campbell, The Christian System, p. 33). (3) “The Plan of Salvation by Grace was no afterthought, introduced merely upon the event of human sinfulness; but the sinfulness of the race was distinctly foreseen, and the Atonement decided upon, and all the peculiar circumstances and conditions of the race devised from the very outset. The world itself was created at first, and its pillars set up, and its physical peculiarities all arranged down to the minutest particulars, in view of the fact that it was to be the home of a sinful race, in which the grand work of Redemption was to be wrought out” (Cook, The Origin of Sin, p. 148). (4) Redemption is the grand word in God’s eternal purpose and plan for us. The Bible is the history of redemption; that is, the record of the unfolding of the divine plan through which reception, in its reality and in its effects, has been brought within reach of all men. Romans 3:24—“being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
13. Q. What is meant by foreordination?
A. Foreordination is the term used to describe all those exercises of the Divine Will by which the circumstances and events in the unfolding of God’s eternal purpose and plan, were determined and decreed from eternity.
14. Q. What is the scripture doctrine of foreordination?
A. It is that the divine Plan of Redemption for man was foreordained in all its particulars, and in the light of God’s foreknowledge that the race would lapse into sin and stand in need of salvation.
(1) This does not mean of course that certain individuals are foreordained to be saved, and others foreordained to be lost. This notion, embodied in many of the man-made creeds, is monstrously derogatory to God, and has driven thousands of confused souls into unbelief. (2) It means, rather, that a certain class of persons is foreordained to be saved, and that another and opposite class is foreordained to be lost. (3) Romans 8:28-30. “All things work together for good to those that are called according to God’s ancient purpose; and they are thus called by the gospel. Those who He foresaw in purpose would obey Him, He predetermined to be, when raised from the dead, of like form with that of His Son. Those whom He thus in purpose predetermined, He also in purpose called; and those whom He called in purpose, He justified in purpose; and those whom He justified in purpose, He glorified in purpose” (Lard, Commentary on Romans, p. 279). It will thus be seen that the apostle is contemplating, in this scripture, God’s eternal purpose; and that the class for whom God purposes to work the benefits described (justification, glorification, etc.) is “them that love God,” and who of course manifest their love for Him by obedience to His commands. In short, the elect, or those foreordained to be saved with an everlasting salvation, are those who respond to the overtures and calls of God as extended through the gospel, and who manifest their faith and love by obedience to His commands. Revelation 22:17.
15. Q. What class of persons is foreordained to be saved?
A. The class consisting of those who accept God’s offer of salvation through Christ.
(1) Ephesians 1:3-5 : “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world . . . having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” etc. Ephesians 1:13-14—“in whom ye also, having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of his glory.” (2) God’s overtures and calls are extended to us through the gospel. 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14—“but we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, for that God chose you from the beginning unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth; whereunto he called you through our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 2:8—“for I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” (3) All who hear and accept God’s calls extended to them through the gospel, constitute the class of accountable human beings that is foreordained to be saved (provided of course that they continue throughout life to be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,” 1 Corinthians 15:58). Hence they are known in scripture as the elect. Revelation 22:17—“he that will, let him take the water of life freely.” 1 Peter 1:1-2—“to the elect . . . according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” Matthew 25:34—“then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (4) ‘The present elect of God are, then, those who are in Christ, and not those out of Him: for it was in Him that God has set His affection upon them, and chose them to eternal life before the world began. God is not, indeed, in this whole affair a respecter of persons. It is at character, and not at person, that God looks. He has predestinated all that are in Christ ‘to be holy and without blame before him in love,’ and, at His coming, to be conformed to Him in all personal excellency and beauty and to share with Him the bliss of a glorious immortality. So that ‘we shall be like him’—he the firstborn, and we His junior brethren, bearing His image in our persons as exactly as we now bear the image of the earthly Adam, the father of us all” (Campbell, The Christian System, pp. 34–35).
16. Q. What class of persons is foreordained to be lost?
A. The class consisting of all those who reject or neglect God’s offer of salvation through Christ.
John 3:18—“he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Mark 16:16—“he that disbelieveth shall be condemmed.” Romans 2:8-11, “but unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil . . . but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh good . . . for there is no respect of persons with God.” Hebrews 2:3—“how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation?” 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9—“at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus; who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might.”
17. Q. Why is this class of persons foreordained to be lost?
A. They will be lost, not because of anything God has done or will do to cause them to be lost, but in consequence of their own disobedience, indifference and rebelliousness.
James 1:13-15, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man; but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth sin; and the sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death.” John 5:40—“ye will not come to me, that ye may have life.” 2 Peter 2:9—“the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment unto the day of judgment.” Romans 2:15-16, “in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them; in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.” Matthew 7:18-20, “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” Hebrews 10:29-31, “of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? . . . It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
REVIEW EXAMINATION OVER LESSON FIFTEEN 10.Q.What do we mean by the foreknowledge of God?
11. Q. What did God evidently foreknow with reference to His moral creatures?
12. Q. What is the connection between God’s foreknowledge and His eternal purpose and plan?
13. Q. What is meant by foreordination?
14. Q. What is the scripture doctrine of foreordination?
15. Q. What class of persons is foreordained to be saved?
16. Q. What class of persons is foreordained to be lost?
17. Q. Why is this class of persons foreordained to be lost?