Foreknown, Predestined

As we return to our studies in Romans, we come to the verses that immediately follow one of the most monumental promises of Scripture—Romans 8:28. In that great verse, Paul affirmed that God is providentially at work in the details of our lives. Now Paul zooms out to show that God has been working out His purpose for us since long before we were born and will bring it to completion long after our immediate circumstances are forgotten. We are the objects of a plan of redemption that began in eternity past and stretches to eternity future. To help us see this, Paul focuses on five of the most important steps in the ordo salutis, the order of salvation. No doubt he chooses these five steps because they particularly reveal God’s loving purpose—to transform us from miserable rebels against His rule to dearly beloved children, like unto Christ Himself. But they also reveal conclusively that it is God alone who saves, for every action Paul mentions here is divine. Clearly salvation is all of God, with no contribution on our part.

First, Paul says, God foreknew us. He is not saying that God foreknew (or had prior knowledge of) some action, which rules out a popular but incorrect interpretation of this verse—that God knew in advance who would have faith in Him, and so predestined them to be saved. Rather, God foreknows people. As used in this sense, the word does not mean merely that God had an image of a person in His mind before He created him or her. Rather, as Dr. James M. Boice writes, it means “God fixed a special attention on a group of people or loved them savingly.” Thus, “to foreknow” as used here basically means “to choose” or “to elect.” In eternity past, God chose us to be conformed to Christ’s image. Second, He predestined us to that end. Foreknowledge does not determine an outcome, but predestination does. Having chosen us, God determined that we would become like Christ. We who were sinners were chosen and predestined to be God’s beloved children and the siblings of Christ, our elder brother.

Foreknowledge and predestination are actions God carried out in the mists of eternity past. But God did not stop there. In tomorrow’s study, we will consider what God has done for us in our own lifetimes—and what He is yet to do.