FIVE STEPS TO GLORY
1. FOREKNOWLEDGE
"Whom He foreknew, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." Romans 8v29
This is the first step in the golden chain that leads to glory. there are those who tell us that foreknowledge is the same as predestination, or predetermination and this comes through in all their arguments. Why then does Paul use two different words? Foreknowledge is pro-ginosko, which is to know beforehand and predestination is pro-orizo which means to determine beforehand. To know beforehand is not the same as to determine beforehand and Paul is not repeating the same thing but demonstrating that God's foreknowledge works in tandem with His predestination, indeed is the basis of His predestination and not the other way round. There are other scriptures where the two things come together Acts 2v23 "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Foreknowledge and predetermination working hand in hand. Again in 1st Peter 1v2 "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Peter says here that election is on the basis of (Greek - kata) of the foreknowledge of God the Father; so again foreknowledge and election working together. Those who want to believe otherwise rush forward to the meaning of predestination and tell us that foreknowledge just means the same, which it patently does not. God's predetermination of anything is always based on His perfect and eternal knowledge. Statements like "this does not simply mean God knew beforehand" are breathtaking in their naivety, since there is nothing simple about the Omniscience of God. It is without doubt one of the most amazing truths of the Bible. Scriptures like Romans 11v33; Psalm 139 etc. present to all of us the staggering truth of Divine knowledge of all things.
So the whole thing started in eternity before the world began. God knows everything; Isaiah 46v10 "Declaring the end from the beginning and from the ancient times the things that are not yet done." Romans 4v17 "He calls those things which be not as though they were." He is ALPHA and OMEGA the beginning and the end, the first and the last and this applies to every living being and to every event in life. In particular here He is thinking of the group of people who will respond to His mercy. There is no point in changing the word "foreknowledge "to meaning anything else; it simply means "those He knew beforehand." It has to be said that this aspect of God, His omniscience, is the most misunderstood, the most undervalued, and the least preached, of all the attributes of God. Such is the power of this that he knows not only the facts but the decisions, the feelings, the attitudes, the workings of all hearts. He talks about "searching the reins and hearts." He knows the who, what, why, how and when. This is a most stupendous truth and we must proclaim it more.
To teach that God predestines everyone's eternal destiny, when all the arguments are boiled down, is to say that God is going to populate heaven with masses of robots who could do no other than respond to His approaches. This is an unbalanced view of Biblical teaching because it ignores the aspect of human responsibility that God charges to everyone of us. It makes a nonsense of the "the whosoever will" passages in scripture, not least from the risen glorified Lord Jesus Christ who stated from the glory "whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely." The answer surely is that based on Infinite knowledge God accepts the decisions of human beings as to their eternal destiny: He predestines to glory all who accept Christ.
God knew beforehand who would love Him and who were the called according to His purpose (verse 28) . Extreme Calvinists are asking the question "who has the ultimate choice in salvation?" unfortunately the wrong question, the Bible never puts it like that. Salvation is the co-operation of the human will with the will of God. This neither denies the Sovereignty of God, nor the grace of God; it asserts both. God predetermined to bless mankind in His Son, He predetermined that human beings would be redeemed in Christ and in His eternal omniscience He knew exactly who they would be. Before time began God knew a people whom He would save and glorify through the sacrifice of His Son.
WHOM HE FOREKNEW, HE ALSO DID PREDESTINATE
Let us all just take on board the simple statements of scripture without trying to press them into a system of interpretation which has caused many problems in the realm of Christian thinking.
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