“Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” (Acts 15:18)

God’s foreknowledge is an awesome subject in the Word of God. Foreknowledge is a term translated from the Greek word “proginōskō”; “pro” meaning “before,” and “ginōskō” meaning “to know,” hence, “to know before.”

God’s divine foreknowledge is linked to everything concerning His Purpose and Plan in Christ Jesus. Nothing takes God by surprise. No one can “pull the wool” over His eyes, because He knows all and sees all. God is omnipotent (Revelation 19:6); which means he is all powerful; and He does whatsoever He pleases in the heaven and the earth.

Though God foreknows all, we will endeavor to observe in the Scriptures, three particular subjects that are at the top of God’s concerns.

First, God’s foreknowledge is revealed in His Promise of Eternal Life:

“In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;” (Titus 1:2)

The Scriptures teach us that before the world began, God had promised His People His Salvation. In God’s infinite understanding, He knew we would have a need. Being the Heavenly Father He is, His Provision for our need was already set in place.

Because of our sin in Adam, we experienced spiritual death (1 Corinthians 15:21; Romans 5:12; 6:23a). In Adam, all of God’s Chosen fell; but in Christ, we are made alive through the Eternal Purpose in Christ Jesus.

This brings us to the next aspect of God’s foreknowledge.

In order for God’s Promise to be accomplished in the lives of His People, He also set a Plan in place. This Plan was foreknown by God, as the Scriptures clearly indicate:

“Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:” (Acts 2:22)

“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:” (Acts 2:23)

“Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” (Acts 2:24)

Jesus says in John 10:18:

“No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

Jesus already knew the Plan the Father had set in place, and He embraced it – so that we, as the Elect of God, might receive the Promise.

Finally, we come to the last aspect of God’s foreknowledge. God foreknew the Promise, the Plan, and He also foreknew the People, that is, the Elect of God.

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father…” (1 Peter 1:1-2)

Christ says of His People in John 15:16:

“Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you…”

It is truly an amazing Love that God has revealed unto His New Creation in these times in which we live. Before the foundation of the world, God made His People a Promise, set a Plan in place to fulfill His Promise, and elected His People for the express purpose of revealing His Love.

We love God, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). There is nothing we have done, or ever could do, to deserve such favor. We deserve spiritual death.

But thank God for the Plan of Redemption, worked out on our behalf as Christ Jesus became our Substitute, Sacrifice, and Savior – that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly.