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In this lesson we shall see God’s foreknowledge, selection, and predestination. Although man’s fall was tragic, before the foundation of the world and in His sovereign ordination, God foreknew, chose, and predestinated a group of people to receive His salvation, that His purpose in man might be fulfilled. Although these three—God’s foreknowledge, selection, and predestination—are different, they are related and are all wonderful acts of God toward the believers in eternity past and in His love. Therefore, the believers were destined to be blessed even in eternity past.
Romans 8:29 indicates that the believers are those whom God foreknew. In eternity past, before the creation of the heavens and the earth and before the beginning of time, God foreknew us and predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that His Son should be the Firstborn among many brothers. This is God’s ordination for all the believers.
God’s selection and predestination of the believers were based on His foreknowledge (1 Pet. 1:2). By exercising His divine foreknowledge, God chose us before the foundation of the world in eternity past.
God foreknew us also according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself for His economy (Eph. 1:9-10). This was His heart’s desire, which was not of man but altogether of Him. According to His desire, His good pleasure, He foreknew a group of people that He might work in them to carry out His economy.
God’s selection took place before the foundation of the world, in eternity past (Eph. 1:4). Before the creation of man, God foreknew and chose us. The expression “before the foundation of the world” implies the creation of the entire universe. Hence, God’s choosing us before the foundation of the world indicates that the universe was founded for man’s existence to fulfill God’s eternal purpose. God chose us before the foundation of the world, and through the creation of the universe He made it possible for man to exist to fulfill God’s eternal purpose.
God also chose us in Christ (Eph. 1:4). “In Christ” indicates that Christ is the virtue, the instrument, and the sphere in which God has blessed us. It was in Christ as the sphere that we were selected by God. Outside of the sphere of Christ, it is not possible for man to be chosen or blessed by God.
God’s selection was also made because of love (1 Thes. 1:4). This love is the love with which God loves us. God chose us because He loved us, and He loved us without reason. Because of His love, He favored us and chose us as the object of His heart’s love.
God chose us through His mercy. It is not of our works nor of our willing or running, but of God, the One who shows mercy (Rom. 9:11, 15-16). When Esau and Jacob were in their mother’s womb, not yet being born, nor having done anything good or bad, God told their mother that He chose the lesser, Jacob, but rejected the greater, Esau. This proves that God did not choose Jacob because his works were good, nor did He reject Esau because his works were bad; for at that time they were not yet born, nor had they done anything good or bad. After their birth, as far as their conduct was concerned, Jacob was worse than Esau, yet God’s selection did not change. Therefore, God chose us not because of our works but because of Himself. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy; He will choose whom He will choose. It is entirely of His mercy.
The fact that God chose us because of His mercy, not because of our works, indicates that God’s selection was by His grace (Rom. 11:5-6). The selection of His grace came to us through His mercy. God’s mercy comes out of His love. His mercy enables His love to reach us and visit us. Although we were fallen, unfit, and unworthy, in His mercy He lifted us out of the undeserving position and made us worthy to receive His grace and enjoy His love. Hence, His selection is a selection of grace which is out of love and through mercy.
God chose the believers that they should be holy and without blemish before Him (Eph. 1:4).
“Before God” means to be according to God’s divine standard. We will be holy and without blemish, not according to our standard or in our eyes, but according to His standard and in His eyes. This qualifies us to remain in and enjoy His presence.
God chose us that we should be holy. Holiness is neither sinlessness nor perfection. Holy means not only sanctified, separated unto God, but also different, distinct, from everything that is common. In the universe, only God is different, distinct, from everything. Hence, He is holy; holiness is His nature.
The way God makes us holy is to impart Himself, the holy One, into us so that we may partake of His divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4), even to be permeated and saturated with His holy nature. Eventually, our whole being will be made holy, like God Himself, in His nature and in His character.
God chose us that we also should be without blemish. A blemish may refer to an impure substance in a precious gem. Through the fall, many impure elements, such as the flesh, the self, and the world, entered into God’s chosen ones, causing them to become blemished. Hence, God is working in us to saturate us with His holy element and remove all impurities, so that we may be permeated, outwardly and inwardly, with God’s holy nature and be without blemish.
Those whom God foreknew and chose, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son and to receive sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself (Rom. 8:29; Eph. 1:4-5). The goal of God’s predestination is sonship. We were predestinated to be sons of God even before we were created. Hence, as God’s creatures, we need to be begotten of Him so that we may participate in His life to be His sons and have the position to inherit all His riches.
God not only chose us before the foundation of the world, but also predestinated us before the ages unto glory (1 Cor. 2:7). When God chose us, He also predestinated us. These two matters were done by God before the ages, in eternity past. Hence, according to God’s selection and predestination, God determined our destiny in eternity past. This destiny is not only that we should be holy and without blemish, but even more that we should be conformed to the image of His Son, receive sonship, and be brought into His glory.
God chose and predestinated us according to His foreknowledge (Rom. 8:29; 1 Pet. 1:2). This indicates that our relationship with God was initiated by God according to His foreknowledge.
God predestinated us according to the good pleasure of His will (Eph. 1:5). This reveals that God has a will in which is His good pleasure. God predestinated us to be His sons according to this pleasure, according to the desire of His heart.
God predestinated us not only according to the good pleasure of His will, but also with a purpose, a plan (Eph. 1:11). It is according to His purpose that He predestinated us. His purpose was the plan which He made according to His will, that we might partake of His life and nature and have the position to enjoy and inherit all His riches.
God predestinated us unto sonship through Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:5). “Through Jesus Christ” means through the Redeemer who is the Son of God. Through Him we were redeemed to be the sons of God with the life and position of God’s sons. Eventually, we will be glorified with Him (Rom. 8:17b) and manifested with Him in glory (Col. 3:4).
Since God predestinated us unto sonship, He foreordained us to have His life, the eternal life (Acts 13:48). Once we believe in the Lord Jesus, we have this eternal life (1 John 5:12), and we are born of Him to be His children (John 1:12).
God chose and predestinated us according to His foreknowledge in order to conform us to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29). Christ, the Son of God, is the mold. God has put us into Him (1 Cor. 1:30) to conform us to His image to be His many brothers, that He should be the Firstborn among us. Through this, the only begotten Son becomes the firstborn Son among many brothers. He is the firstborn Son, and we are the many sons to express God in a corporate way.
God predestinated us not only that we should be conformed to the image of His Son, but that we should also receive sonship (Eph. 1:5). By conformation we are brought into the reality of sonship. When we are born again, only our spirit is in the sonship, not our soul or our body. This sonship will spread outward from our spirit until it saturates our whole being. At the time of the Lord’s return our physical body will also be saturated with the sonship and be transfigured. This is the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23). At that time we will be brought wholly into sonship. Every part of our being—spirit, soul, and body—will be in the completion of sonship.
Today we are undergoing the process of sonship. We have the Spirit of the Son and the life of the Son in us, sanctifying us, transforming us, and conforming us to the image of God’s Son. Furthermore, we have the position of the Son (John 20:17) that we may have the legal right to inherit all that God the Father is and all that He has. Eventually, we will inherit all that God is for eternity (Rev. 21:7).
God not only predestinated us to have eternal life, to be conformed to the image of His Son, and to receive sonship, but He also foreordained us to obtain His glory (1 Cor. 2:7) that we might express Him. God’s glory is God expressed. We are vessels of mercy which He has before prepared unto glory (Rom. 9:23), and He has called us into this glory (2 Thes. 2:14; 1 Pet. 5:10). Christ Himself is our hope of glory (Col. 1:27), and today we exult and boast in this hope of glory (Rom. 5:2). When this hope, Christ, is manifested, then we will also be manifested with Him in glory (Col. 3:4). That will be the redemption of our body, the transfiguration of our body. At that time, God’s glory will be expressed from our spirit to our soul and through our body. The three parts of our whole being will be the same as Christ is and be fully saturated with God’s glory. This is to be glorified, which is the ultimate consummation of God’s full salvation. It is also the ultimate goal to which God predestined us in eternity.
Although man’s fall was tragic, before the foundation of the world and in His sovereign ordination, God foreknew, chose, and predestinated a group of people to receive His salvation that His purpose in man might be fulfilled. According to His foreknowledge and His good pleasure, He chose us in eternity past that we should be holy and without blemish before Him. His selection is a selection of grace which was out of His love and through His mercy. Furthermore, according to the good pleasure of His will and according to His purpose, He predestinated us before the ages that we should obtain glory. This means that we should receive sonship through Jesus Christ to have the Spirit of the Son, the life of the Son, and the position of the Son, and to be conformed to the image of God’s Son. Eventually, our whole being with its three parts—spirit, soul, and body—will look exactly like Christ and be fully saturated with God’s glory. This is the ultimate consummation of God’s full salvation. It is also the ultimate goal to which God foreknew, chose, and predestinated us in eternity past.
