Title: Foreknowledge and Predestination
Text: Romans 8: 29
Date: November 16, 2014
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Romans 8: 29: For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
The
Holy Spirit gives this in answer to the verse just before it. This is the reason why the believer knows
that God is working all things together for good for us. Everything that comes to pass in this earth
is worked together by God for those God loves, for those who are “the called.” The “called” are those called in eternity, in
God’s eternal purpose of grace who also shall be called in time, out of
darkness into his marvelous light.
Everything
God does is according to his eternal purpose. With God, before God, there are
no accidents. Everything is coming to pass and being worked together exactly
according to God’s purpose.
Ephesians
1: 9: Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good
pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10: That in the dispensation of the
fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11: In whom
also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose
of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
So the Holy Spirit says through Paul the way that “we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who
are the called according to his purpose” is “For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren.” (Rom 8: 28-29) We will take this verse,
phrase by phrase.
FOR WHOM HE DID
FOREKNOW
The false doctrine of fallen, unregenerate
man makes salvation to be by the will and works of the sinner. This is the
primary difference between the truth and lies.
Man says that God’s “foreknowledge” is something like that of a “fortune
teller.” Man says that before the foundation of the world, God looked into the
future, seeing that some would believe. Therefore, God chose them. No!
If God chose his people because he foresaw we would
believe then the sinner would have room to boast: election would not be
according to God’s will, but according to the sinner’ will; election would not be
according to God’s grace, but according to the sinner’s works; election would
not be of God who calls the sinner, but of the sinner who calls on God. Salvation is by God’s grace according to God’s
will not by man’s will or works.
This is the difference between the truth and
lies. Will-works religion makes man to be the cause of salvation. The gospel
declares God is the cause of salvation.
THE PURPOSE OF ELECTION
The very purpose of God’s sovereign election is
so that salvation is not of man’s works but of God who calls whom he will. Read
Romans 9,
Romans
9: 10…when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
11: (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of
works, but of him that calleth;)
There is the purpose of God in electing his people—that salvation
be not of works but of God that calleth. Read on.
Romans
9: 12: It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13: As it is
written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 14: What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
Why would the Holy Spirit move Paul to raise that
question? It is because when sinners
hear that God’s foreknowledge and election of his people is not according to
any foreseen good or evil in them, not of their works at all, but of God who
calls, then they say, “God is not fair!” They say, “That’s not right for God to
do that!” God answers through Paul,
Romans
9: 15: For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16: So then it is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth
mercy. 17: For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the earth. 18: Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. 19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet
find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 20
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of
the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22 What if God, willing to shew his
wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And
that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which
he had afore prepared unto glory, 24
Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles?
So the purpose of God according to election
is that salvation be not of works, but of him that calleth. God has mercy on
whom God will have mercy. Election is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God who shows mercy.
FOREKNOWLEDGE
So what does it mean when it says “For whom God foreknow?”
“Foreknowledge” is the Greek word from which we get the word “prognosis.” Prognosis
is a judgment made beforehand.
Before
the foundation of the world, God made a judgment of his people. God took delight in his people, in Christ. In
eternity, God approved of his people in Christ his Son. God’s foreknowledge of
his people is God’s peculiar, gracious, complacency in his people.
It is
because in the mind and purpose of God, when he formed us in his Son, knowing
the end of what he would do from the beginning. God’s complaceny with his
people—his foreknowledge of us—his everlasting love and delight in us—is
because in the mind and purpose of God we were conformed to Christ, it was done
in Christ. We were predestinated in image of his Son, called, justified, and
glorified. It was infinitely, eternally complete in the mind and purpose of
God. There was no time yet. God is eternal. So beforehand, God took delight in
his people in his Son.
Adam
“knew” Eve. Foreordination is God
“knowing” his people personally, loving them particularly, approving of them in
Christ, in the mind of God in eternity. This “love of knowing” is what is being
declared in the context of Romans 8. After declaring the things God did and
does for his people, the Spirit says, “Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?...shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8: 35, 39) God’s judgment of his people, his prognosis in
his own heart toward them, was everlasting love and infinite approval in
Christ. “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn
thee.” (Jer 31: 3)
Our
text, does not say “what” God foreknew—in the earth in the future—it is “whom”
God foreknew in eternity—in the mind and delight of God—in Christ.
THE FORE—SEEING OF GOD
The
thing most mistake foreknowledge for is God foreseeing into this time-state in
which we live. We do not want God to
choose or refuse us based on what he foresees in us in this time state. When God is said to look upon us from heaven,
into this time-state in which we live in, scriptures says this is what God
sees.
Genesis
6: 12: And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all
flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Psalm
53: 2: God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there
were any that did understand, that did seek God. 3: Every one of them is
gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth
good, no, not one.
All God’s eternal blessings toward his people flow out of
God alone—according to his foreknow-SIS—fore-love—fore-approbation—his eternal
judgment of his people. It has nothing to do with any good or evil forseen in
us or of us. It is obvious God did not foresee we would believe because those
God foreknew he also did predestinate.
HE ALSO DID
PREDESTINATE
God
pre--fixed the destination of his people—that destination is conformity to the
image of his Son. Had God foreseen that his people would believe on him then
there would have been no need for God to predestinate them. But the reason, we were redeemed by Christ,
regenerated by the Holy Spirit, given the gift of faith and brought into the
family of God—the reason we believe—is because God predestinated us to be
conformed to the image of his Son. To see to it that his people would be
conformed to the image of Christ, God predestinated each one to that conformity
to his Son.
Ephesians
1: 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
4 According as he hath chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love: 5: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein
he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Those
God foreknew, God blessed with all spiritual blessings by choosing us in
Christ, and those he chose he predestinated to be sanctified by Christ through
the Holy Spirit into the family of God.
1 Peter 1:2: Elect according to the foreknowledge of God
the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
2
Thessalonians 2: 11: And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie: 12: That they all might be damned who believed
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 13: But we are bound to
give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth: 14
Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah 1:5: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew
thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I
ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
A PURPOSED FALL
It was
to be conformed to Christ’s image that God predestinated us to the adoption of
children. So that tells us that Adam’s fall and our fall in Adam was according
to God’s purpose to glorify his Son. In fact, God made Adam the representative
head of all Adam’s people to picture Christ the last Adam, who represented all
his people—
Romans 5: 14: Adam—“is the figure of him that was to
come.”
Romans 5: 19: For as by one man’s disobedience many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
Remember, in our text, the Holy Spirit is showing us why
all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called
according to his purpose. Adam’s transgression and fall, evil as it was against
God, was worked together for the good of God’s people. It was so that Christ,
the last Adam could receive all the glory for perfectly obeying God, unto the
death of the cross, for his people.
Now, as we look at how God predestinated us to be
conformed to the image of Son. We
remember Adam was created in the garden in that image. But we lost the image of God in the fall. Adam’s
son, Seth, was not born in the image of God, but in the image of Adam—fallen,
depraved, without spiritual understanding. So was every son born of Adam.
So we came into this world under the curse. In order for
us to be conformed to the image of Christ, we had to be justified from the law,
we had to be recreated in regeneration after the image of God and one day we
will have to be raised incorruptible into Christ’s presence. So why did Christ
come?
First,
to justify us so that we could then be given the Holy Spirit in regeneration so
that we would be created in his image inwardly in the new man,
Galatians
4: 3 Even so we, when we were children,
were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons.
Christ Jesus took the flesh of his brethren. Christ
Jesus was made under the law like his brethren. Christ Jesus took the sin and
judgment of his brethren, redeeming each one from the curse of the law. Christ
accomplished that work “that we might receive the adoption of sons”—that we
might be born of the Holy Spirit, after the image of God’s Son.
Galatians
4: 6: And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into
your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7: Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but
a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
2 Corinthians
3:18 But we all, with open face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Oh, get
this in our hearts, brethren. Satan, sin, death and hell, all the ages of time,
the wars between nations and people, the rejection and crucifixion of God’s own
Son, your and mine rebellion all our days, the gospel being brought to us, our
being born again, all of it, God worked together for the good of his people, according
to his purpose –why? “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.”
(Rom 8: 29)
1 John
3: 2: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we
shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we
shall see him as he is.
Will
anything stop God for bringing to pass this eternal purpose?
Philippians
3: 21: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his
glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all
things unto himself.
Rest,
easy, beloved, nothing shall stop God from working all things together for the
good of his people according to his purpose.
THE CHIEF REASON
Lastly,
what is the chief reason that God did
and does all this for his people?
The chief reason is not for us. The
chief reason is for his Son, “that he might be the firstborn among many
brethren.” (Rom 8: 29) God’s love, election, predestination, calling,
justification, and glorification—God’s salvation of his people—first and
foremost—is for his Son, Jesus Christ.
Psalm
115: 1: Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy
mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
Colossians
1: 16 For by [Christ] were all things
created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: [good
and evil] all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all things, and by him all
things consist. 18 And he is the head of
the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that
in all things he might have the preeminence.
From eternity, God gave all things into the hands of his
Son to glorify his Son and give him all preeminence in all things. He did so that
Christ might be the Head of God’s whole house. The Firstborn among many
brethren
His brethren are all made partakers of his divine
nature: all are sons in the same family with him, all have the same Father, all
have the same inheritance, being joint-heirs with Christ, all have the same
blessings of grace in him and by him so that he is not ashamed to call us
brethren. But God saves each of his children so that Christ receives all the
glory as the Firstborn among many brethren.
The
Firstborn has the blessing, the government, the priesthood, and the
inheritance. This is all owing to, and
is the chief end of God’s divine election, predestination, particular
redemption, irresistible calling and final glorification of his people.
Sinner,
understand this, if you reject God’s sovereign grace then you reject Christ
having the glory as the Firstborn. Satan and a host of angels did and they were
cast out forever. But all his brethren—knowing what we are in ourselves and
knowing what he has done for us freely by his blood and his grace—we sing a
different song, “Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first
begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that
loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings
and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and
ever. Amen.” (Rev 1: 5-6)
Amen.