What does the world “foreknew” or “foreknow” mean when used in the Bible? What does it have to do with Christians?
The Sovereignty of God
Rather than read some theologians definition of the sovereignty of God or look it up in one of my Bible dictionaries, I thought, let the Word of God define what that looks like and there are dozens of Scriptures I could turn to but can only manage to use a few. One of the best examples comes from the Apostle Paul who wrote Timothy and instructed him and the church to live a life of holiness, “until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen” (1st Tim 6:14b-16). What it means is that all things are under God’s rule and control, and that nothing happens without His direction or permission. Like a king rules the subjects within his kingdom, he brings judgment on those who break his laws. In the same way, God will bring justice someday at Jesus’ return or after a person dies (Heb 9:27).
The Bible on God’s Sovereignty
Daniel the Prophet makes it very clear as to what he knows about God’s sovereignty. For example, in Daniel 4:35 he wrote, “All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” Furthermore, “Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps” (Psalm 135:6). Those two verses are more than enough proof that God reigns supreme and that He determines the timing, not us. So even if “The heart of man plans his way…the Lord establishes his steps” (Prov 16:9), and it doesn’t matter whether he knows it or not.
The Foreknowledge of God
When we look at Bible verses on the foreknowledge of God, first we look at the word itself. It is having the knowledge of something specific and having the knowledge of certain events, even before such an event occurs. With that in mind, the Apostle Paul wrote about God foreknowing us in Ephesians 1:4; “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love.” Since God has chosen us, and He has done so already, and even before the earth was created, that means that God had us in mind before He had created the heavens and the earth. Right after God calls Jeremiah the Prophet, He tells him “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations” (Jer 1:5). That’s what foreknowing is. It means to foreknow something in advance before it’s even comes to pass or even exists. If you or I have knowledge of something that’s going to happen beforehand it may or may not happen but for God, the outcome is fixed by God’s Word and only God Himself can have such knowledge. We don’t even know what tomorrow may bring.
The End from the Beginning
Isaiah the Prophet tries to give us a linear view of time but with God, that seems impossible because He is the One Who is “Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isaiah 46:10). God has already planned in advance the wedding feast where the bride of Christ, the church, will marry the Lamb of God at His appearance and whose names are in “the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” before the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8). The Apostle Peter writes that “lamb without blemish or spot” (1st Pet 1:19b) “was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1st Pet 1:20-21). The point being, God doesn’t hope things will work out for us and that we’ll be saved; He is the One Who grants us repentance (2nd Tim 2:25). God the Father draws us but only through Christ (John 6:44; Acts 4:12). The fact that God brings us to repentance and faith in Christ is clearly evident in Scripture, because none of us ever seek God on our own (Rom 3:11).
The Golden Chain
Some have called Romans 8:28-30 the “golden chain” because it is a series of interdependent clauses that are like one chain being link to the next and to the next, and so on. The Apostle Paul speaks specifically about God’s foreknowledge in writing, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” Since God is sovereign, He works everything out for His purposes, for those who have been called by God. It is an effectual call, as He causes it to come to pass. The person who is called has been predestined to be conformed or shaped into Christ’s image. Of those he has predestinated, he has also called to be justified by the free gift of grace (Eph 2:8-9). Those justified ones are yet to be glorified. The ones who were originally called end up being the same ones that will be glorified. Not one is lost (John 6:37, 39; 10:28-29).
Conclusion
The foreknowledge of God is the knowledge of everything that’s ever happened, is happening, and will yet happen, even if it does not yet exist. If you have been brought to repentance and confession of sin and coming in humility before the Lord and Savior and placed your trust in Him, Romans 8:28-30 will have very special meaning to you. There is nothing like knowing our future is secure, even if we don’t know what’ll happen in the next five minutes.
Article by Jack Wellman
Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.
