Foreknown, Formed, and Chosen

O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me; indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvellous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, And skilfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God! Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men. For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain. Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

(Psalms 139:1-24)

 At the outset of this section, I must first explain the concept of the foreknowledge of God—a biblical truth revealed to us by both the apostle Paul (Romans 8:29) and the apostle Peter (1 Peter 1:2). There are two aspects to God’s foreknowledge. The first is God’s perfect knowledge of everything about His creations before He ever creates them. The second is His perfect knowledge of all their future before He creates them.

When Scripture teaches about election and predestination, it consistently connects those doctrines to God’s foreknowledge. However, when the Bible says that God predestines us based on His foreknowledge, it is referring to the first aspect—His knowledge of everything about us—not merely His knowledge of our future. In other words, God does not place the cart before the horse.

The sequence is as follows:

1.         God first foreknows everything about us.

2.        Based on that knowledge, He predestines our lives accordingly.

3.        Based on His predestination, He foreknows all our future.

4.        Only then does He physically create us and place us into His creation.

In the previous section, we explored why God decides who can and cannot be saved. In this section, we’ll examine how God makes and implements that decision. God has not hidden this truth from us—He has revealed in Scripture the pattern He follows in creating each of us. Importantly, these decisions and processes were completed before time began.

Scripture shows that God follows a consistent pattern. The first step in that pattern is that He searches us thoroughly to determine if any iniquity is found in us—as it was found in Lucifer before he sinned. We must understand that God searches our hearts before we ever sin in this life. Before God forms us, He already knows everything about us, including how we will respond to Him with the free will He gives us—our willingness to fellowship with Him, to worship Him, and to submit to Him as our God and Creator.

Bear in mind that God’s interest is not only in how we respond to Him in this life but also in eternity. God searches our hearts from eternity—meaning He knows how we would respond to Him in a perfect environment. To establish this truth, I have once again quoted four witnesses: the Lord Jesus, God the Father, the apostle James, and the apostle Paul. All four confirm that God knows each of us intimately before we are ever born.

The first witness quoted above is the Lord Jesus Christ. In this passage, Jesus is speaking as the Son of Man—not as the Son of God—for when He came to earth, He laid aside His divine attributes and became a man (Philippians 2:7). Through the prophet David, Jesus is telling us how intimately God the Father knew Him as a man before He ever became one.

We know that David is not speaking about himself, because David was never “skilfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth,” but our Lord Jesus was—when God raised Him from the dead from the depths of the earth. The reason I quoted the entire Psalm is because Jesus, through David, reveals how perfectly God knows us before creating us.

For example, the phrase “You understand my thought afar off” is more accurately translated “long before.” In other words, long before Jesus ever thought as a man, God already knew those thoughts. Clearly, Jesus is teaching that God had already searched Him and known Him. He goes on to say that God searched His heart to see if there was any wicked way in Him. If God knew the perfect Son of Man so intimately before forming Him, then surely He knows each of us just as intimately—including how we will exercise our free will in eternity.

Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."

(Jeremiah 1:4-5)

The second witness quoted above is God the Father. In this passage, God tells Jeremiah that before He formed him in the womb, He already knew him. In other words, God had already searched Jeremiah completely to see if there was any iniquity in him. This passage does not emphasize God’s knowledge of Jeremiah’s future (though He did know it), but rather His knowledge of Jeremiah’s inner character and heart. Based on this foreknowledge, God knew what Jeremiah would do with the free will given to him. That same principle applies to all of God’s creations.

And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, "Men and brethren, listen to me: Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: 'After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things.' "Known to God from eternity are all His works. Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God,

(Acts 15:13-19)

The third witness quoted above is the apostle James. In this passage James is not simply saying that God knows which are His works and which are not—since all of creation are God’s works—but that He knows everything about all His works before creating them. James affirms that God’s knowledge precedes time. Nothing is hidden from Him. This is a simple yet profound truth: God knows everything (Psalm 147:5). Once that is accepted, it becomes clear that God knows all about His creations from eternity.

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

(Romans 8:29)

The final witness quoted above is the apostle Paul. Here, Paul outlines two distinct steps in God’s creative pattern: foreknowledge and predestination. But he is careful to place foreknowledge first. God’s predestination is based on His intimate foreknowledge of us—not simply His knowledge of future events. This includes how each of us will respond to the free will God gives us.

In conclusion, we have seen from these four witnesses—Jesus Christ, God the Father, James, and Paul—that God knows everything about each one of us before He ever creates us. That is the full meaning of what Scripture teaches when it says God "foreknows" us.

Michael E.B. Maher

Predestined to His Purpose

Buy Now

Donate

Payoneer