Introduction

To introduce the point of today’s sermon, let's do a little experiment. If I say that I want to give you a radical reason for my hope, a deep rooted reason, one that sustains me as a human being, a Christian, and a pastor in the face of my frailty, and my confrontation with aging, sore tennis knees, suffering, sin, and death, but I want you to guess what verse I would cite, what verse would you guess? What single verse in the NT do you think I probably have in mind when I look at all the things of life and have hope and expectation for good to come? As you are trying to figure out the verse I have in mind, let me narrow it down to the book of Romans and to chapter 8. Now I want to say this, I think you will be one verse off. You are most likely thinking that it is Romans 8:28, "all things work together for good to them that love God." But I am thinking of Romans 8:29. I refer you to verse 29 instead of verse 28 because verse 29 gives the ground and basis for the sweeping promise that all things are worked for our good. As we shall see, it gives a radical foundation for Romans 8:28, placing it firmly on the rock of God's eternal love.

Verse 29 says, "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." The idea of eternal love is present here because foreknew means foreloved. This is a profound and matchless reason for hope. 

Granted, this has its controversial aspects. When we read Scripture, we must always be concerned about hearing the voice of God rather than merely hearing our own rationalizing. It is always a matter of submitting our hearts, thoughts, and wills to Christ speaking in Scripture. It is therefore important that we work through the difficulties and controversial aspects of this theme with a spirit of open-minded humility.

There are three questions I want to answer today: why does "foreknew" mean "foreloved" here in Romans 8? 2) Does it have this meaning throughout the NT? And 3) Why is it important to know that foreknew means foreloved? The third question will be treated in the conclusion.

How do we get the meaning of a word like this (foreknew)? How do we grab on clearly to what the biblical writer is saying? We usually do this in ascending steps. So let’s begin with the first step at a very elementary and literal level.

1A. Why does "foreknew" mean "foreloved" here in Romans 8?

1B. Foreknew has a literal simplicity

"Foreknew" literally means knowing beforehand; the word is made up of "knew/know" and the prefix "fore." We can define it as knowing before, or having knowledge of something beforehand. Who has this knowledge, who is the subject of foreknew? It has to be God (v. 28, "his purpose," refers to God). So at the least we are talking about God’s omniscience, particularly His knowledge about the future before it happens.

2B. "Foreknew" is personal

It has an object: God foreknew persons. This passage is quite specific. It refers to "those" God foreknew. It refers to people that are known by God. This has a personal ring to it. Is this everyone from Adam and Eve to the end of time? No per verse 28 those in view are the ones called according to His purpose who love God, in other words, to followers of Christ. These people are known by God in a special way described as "before" (foreknown).

This brings us to a very important conclusion. Now we know that God’s omniscience is not the main thing in view. Of course God knows all things including all future things. But that is not the point being made by Paul. God’s perfect knowledge is not in view (though that is presupposed); the concern is with a prior knowing of persons and particular persons at that (the foreknown ones are the called ones).

3B. "Foreknew" has a pre-temporal dimension

It takes us back to a "time" before all things. The timeframe is given to us in the references to predestination (v. 29) and purpose (v. 28). Predestined (v. 29) can be translated foreordained, which means to be ordained beforehand for a specific destiny (a pre-destiny). This has to be tied inseparably to God’s purpose cited in verse 28 (cf. the same people are in view as the called, those foreknew, and those he predestined). This emphasizes the point that God's purpose or plan has a precise goal in mind for the called ones; they are pre-appointed to reach the end marked out ahead of time, which is conformity to Christ.

This obviously indicates that God's purpose includes the whole history of God's people within the whole of history in the fullest possible way. God is working all things together for their good. This is one of those places where Scripture gives us a universal use of universal terms (There is a limited use of universal terms in the Bible like "all in Christ shall be made alive," which does not refer to all people from Adam and Eve forward). What God does in history He does on purpose and not accidentally. He does nothing out of pure whim or by accident. All that God does, He does intentionally. And we can ask, "Does God know all that He intends?" Of course, He does. Thus, God’s foreknowledge reaches back to a "time" before the foundation of the world taking in the entire scope of the universe and all events. This leads us to consider Ephesians 1.

4B. "Foreknew" is covenantal

The knowing of persons before all things that is associated with a preordained destiny of conformity to Christ has the goal of making Christ the firstborn of many brothers (Rom. 8:29). Thus everything in history is being worked to fulfill that goal.

1) On one hand, this is parallel with Ephesians 1:1-14. In Ephesians we are taught that God has a plan, a purpose, that relates to all things and that carries forth into realization His election of sinners to holiness, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, and a glorious inheritance (1:4, 5, 7, 11, and 14). Therefore, Paul gives us the most sweeping perspective possible on the scope of God's purpose such that it takes in the universe and all of human history in order to realize His electing and predestinating goals. This indicates that chosen before the foundation of the world is parallel with foreknew (Eph. 1:5 is parallel with Rom. 8:29) since both take us back to a reference point before the realization of God’s purpose for His elect that operates within His purpose regarding all things.

Now we are beginning to see that foreknew not only overlaps with but means chosen beforehand (cf. Jer. 1:5, "before I formed you in the womb I knew you and appointed you to be a prophet," i.e. I foreknew/chose you). It is another way of saying that God’s people were His elect before the foundation of the world; they were chosen, that is, foreknown).

2) On the other hand, the goal of a covenant family reminds us of John 17 where the Father’s elect are given to Christ: Yours they were and you gave them to me (v. 6). They were given to Christ in the eternal covenant of redemption. This is a context of eternal love. Here we have almost reached the top of the stairs to the full meaning of foreknew.

5B. "Foreknew" grounds providential love.

Something more than selection and discrimination is added when the elect are referred to as the foreknown. They are foreknown in some special way. This special way refers us to God's love. Let me show why that is the case in Romans 8.

The term "foreknew" is a hinge between vs. 28 and 29.   It harkens back to v. 28 and to all that is spoken of there. The foreknown are the called who love God and for whom all things are being worked for good in the outworking of God's purpose that embraces all of factuality. It looks forward to conformity to Christ. Contextually, the foreknowing grounds, under pins, and drives the working of all things for good.

Therefore, to be "foreknown" means more, much more, than the general fact that God knows all things ahead of time about His people. It means that God is working all things for their good now (v. 28) and that this working will also lead inevitably and infallibly to conformity with Christ in the future (v. 29).

To be foreknown means to be protected in the midst of life's uncertainties, in the midst of all the things that threaten us, like tribulation, distress, persecution, peril, nakedness, famine, sword, and all the sufferings of this present age.  In other words, foreknown means to be loved, to be foreloved. It is not a matter of God's foresight of things we will do; it refers to the action of God in love that will see us through all things.

This word (foreknew) roots the working of Romans 8:28 deep in the fountain of God's everlasting love. Love is a matter of action. And God does not act according to whim but according to plan and purpose. "Foreknown" refers to God's loving purpose for His called ones. This is a love, Paul tells us, that reaches back into eternity past to the throne of God, to the very heart of God as a great fountain from which flows the working of all things for our good (v. 28)!

2A. Does foreknew have this meaning throughout the NT?

The terms foreknew and foreknowledge occur in seven places in the NT. Two of the references refer to some form of human knowledge and they do not carry the idea of forelove (Acts 26:5, "They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee." There is no "knowing something ahead of time" here; it refers to knowing something for a long time before the present. But it is knowledge and not love that is intended by the term; 2 Pet. 3:17, "You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability." This refers to knowing the fact that ignorant and unstable people who twist the Scriptures to their own destruction will be encountered down the road by believers. The point is to forewarn in order to forearm. This is a literal human knowledge about people in the future. It is not forelove.).

The remaining passages are Romans 8:29, Romans 11:2, 1 Peter 1:20, Acts 2:23, and 1 Peter 1:2. In all these passages God is the subject. We have already seen how foreknew in Romans 8:29 refers to providential love as its driving foundation, which obviously has to presuppose God’s omniscience. So now we ask, "Do the rest (the remaining four) of these NT passages include but go far beyond knowledge to love?

1) In Romans 11, note how Paul shows that God did not reject His people whom he foreknew (v. 2). He cites the remnant in Elijah's day (vs. 2-4) and in the present (vs. 5-6). To be foreknown and not rejected means to be the object of God's good and effectual will (I have reserved for myself, seven thousand, v. 4) and it means to be an object of God's choosing (v. 5). Thus God wills and acts on behalf of His people. These facts inform us that He loves them with an electing love being actively realized. Foreknew means foreloved.

2) What about the often cited passage in 1 Peter (1:1-2, "elect…according to the foreknowledge of God)? Are there any indications in the context that foreknowledge adds love to election (elect…according to forelove)? There is nothing here that suggests some other meaning such as the restriction of foreknowledge to omniscience (simply God’s prior knowledge of information about the elect). But there are a number of things in the context that point the way to love. a) God is referred to as Father (v. 2; consider how this is covenant language). b) Election "according to foreknowledge" is realized "in the sanctification of the Spirit" (v. 2). The elect are set apart for God by the separating work of the Spirit. This shows the love of God that works our good in bringing us to Him. c) Election is further realized in the fact that when the Spirit sets us apart it is "for obedience to Jesus Christ" (v. 2). This is a good to which election brings us: to obedience; to this we can only say, "what wonderful love."

It is not that we are chosen because of the obedience of faith or any other obedient act. Election is worked out in our lives by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that causes us to be born again (v. 3), and thus to obey. This is a loving gift and blessing that comes from the Father who has blessed us with all blessing in Christ because He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:3-4). Another blessing that flows from election according to foreknowledge is redemption. The Spirit sets us apart "for sprinkling with his blood" (v. 2). Therefore, it is binding on us to conclude that the phrase "elect…according to foreknowledge" informs us that election is an act of electing love that comes to expression in the blessing of the Spirit’s work that applies the blood of Christ to us by bringing us to the freedom of obedience from our former slavery to disobedience.

3) Consider 1 Peter 1:20.

In this text, Peter speaks of Jesus as "foreknown before the foundation of the world." One of the best ways to get some backdrop on what is intended here is to go to the words of our Lord in the high priestly prayer of John 17. There He speaks to the Father and says, "You loved me before the foundation of the world" (v. 24). His being loved before the foundation of the world is tied inseparably to bringing His given ones to glory; this has to spill over on our understanding of our being foreknown before all things were created (Rom. 8:29) and chosen before the foundation the world (Eph. 1:4). And that is the context of 1 Peter where we are told that Jesus was our lamb of sacrifice (1:19), manifest for our sake (1:20) that through Him we became believers (1:21). Thus Jesus was foreloved in the eternal covenant of grace and thus chosen to be the redeemer of the people that were foreloved in the eternal covenant of grace, the ones given to Christ by the Father. "Foreknow" reeks with time transcending love!

4) It may seem that the last passage, Acts 2:23, does not have the meaning of forelove since it deals with God’s plan of the crucifixion: "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men."

However, it takes only a moment of reflection to recognize that the crucifixion of Christ is a supreme act of love from the triune God to needy sinners. It is the supreme loving act. Thus, Jesus was crucified according to the love of God for Him and for those given to Him. This is the supreme manifestation of the forelove of God (His prior everlasting love) for those called according to His purpose: they will be redeemed by the precious blood of Christ crucified. Therefore, wonderfully and marvelously foreknew means foreloved.

Conclusion: What is the importance of knowing that foreknew means foreloved?

1) To base divine election on foreseen faith (as done by Arminianism and Wesleyan Arminianism, cf. Wesley’s sermon on Free Grace, paragraph 29) is totally unjustified and un-Scriptural. Such a view completely misunderstands and misrepresents the rich meaning attached to God’s foreknowing and foreknowledge given to us in Scripture. Thus we cannot use foreknowledge to reduce God’s sovereign choice to man’s choice. Foreknowledge gives no support to the idea that human destiny is ultimately determined by man’s will rather than God’s will.

2) It is important to set the notion of foreseen faith aside because on that view our salvation is tainted by some human contribution and our hope is shifted from God to ourselves. When we do that we exchange the good news of saving grace for the bad news of a saving synergism. Synergism means "co – work" like the cooperative, synergistic principle in a shopping center where the store owners co-operate (you do your part and I'll do mine). A human contribution to our salvation would turn the grace of God into a "grace-plus" salvation, grace plus some work, choice, act of man. This would make salvation ultimately depend on ourselves. That is not good news.

3) When we realize that foreknew means foreloved then a very important dimension is given to the doctrine of election in very direct terms. That is, we are informed in a powerful way that election is a matter of electing love; it is love, God’s love is the ultimate fountain from which all the blessings of election flow to us. This is a great comfort; these are words of love: "those He foreknew."

In summary we can say that the term foreknew does refer to God’s knowledge of all things and events before they are created and occur. But in Romans 8:29 we must immediately recognize that it is knowledge of persons; it is personal knowledge that goes beyond mere information. It is also a knowing that goes back "before" the foundation of the world. Foreknown is thus parallel with chosen before the foundation of the world. It is covenantal and foreknew adds love to election; it adds providential and covenantal love that defines the personal knowing that transcends history.

4) That knowing beforehand means loving beforehand is a solid basis for hope.

We can get at the matter of hope by starting with this question: To whom do these things apply? We cannot know who the elect are or are not by somehow peering into the secret things of God (Deut. 29:29). So what can we say?

We can say, and say it with confidence, that this marvelous electing love applies to you if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is the risen Lord (cf. Rom. 10:9-10). Those who trust in Christ are those who have made the choice of love for God above all earthly things (cf. Matt. 6:24); they love God from the depths of their hearts though they recognize their frailty and continual need of God’s grace and mercy.

If you trust in the risen Lord Jesus then you have the greatest possible future out in front of you. You have an imperishable inheritance; it is yours now but it remains to be received in all of its fullness. And you have the Holy Spirit as a guarantee until you acquire full possession of it (Eph. 1:14).

Let me give some examples that show that the word refers to God's intimate, distinguishing, and eternal love for His people. Different passages stress different aspects but the usage of knowing and foreknowing always has the flavor of intimate love.