Foreknowledge

God’s foreknowledge

Everything is within God’s knowledge

Isaiah 42:9 (ESV)

Behold, the former things have come to pass,

and new things I now declare;

before they spring forth

I tell you of them.”

See also 1 Ki 22:14; Da 2:28; Mt 24:36

What God knows he ordains

Isaiah 46:10–11 ESV

declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.

What does your prayer life look like?

See also Ac 2:23; Ro 8:28–30; 1 Pe 1:1–2

God’s foreknowledge of the Messiah

Acts 3:18 ESV

But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.

For, to confess that God exists, and at the same time to deny that He has foreknowledge of future things, is the most manifest folly.

Augustine of Hippo

This is the predestination of saints, namely the foreknowledge and planning of God’s kindnesses, by which they are most surely delivered. As for the rest, where are they left by God’s righteous judgment save in the mass of perdition?

Augustine of Hippo

“God’s set purpose and foreknowledge.”

Max Lucado

See also Is 11:1–3; Is 53:7–9; Mic 5:2; Ac 2:22–23; Ac 4:27–28; 1 Pe 1:20

God’s foreknowledge and his election of his people

God’s sovereign choice

Romans 8:29 ESV

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.

See also Pr 16:4; Ro 9:11–12; Ro 11:2; Eph 1:4; 1 Pe 1:1–2; 1 Pe 1:20

Human responsibility

Hebrews 2:3 ESV

how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,

See also Jn 3:18; Jn 3:36; 1 Co 15:2; 2 Co 6:1–2; Eph 5:5–6; Heb 3:12; Heb 6:4–6; 2 Pe 2:1; Heb 3:15; Ps 95:7–8

Jesus Christ’s foreknowledge

Of events within his general ministry

John 6:64 ESV

But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)

See also Mt 17:27; Mt 26:31–34; Lk 22:34; Jn 13:38

Of his suffering and departure

John 13:1 ESV

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

See also Mt 26:18; Mk 8:31; Lk 12:50; Lk 22:37; Jn 3:14; Jn 7:33; Jn 13:11; Jn 13:33; Jn 14:28; Jn 17:5; Jn 18:4; Jn 19:28

Of his coming in glory and judgment

Matthew 16:27 ESV

For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

See also Mt 24:30–31; Mt 25:31; Mk 8:38; Lk 24:26

Jesus Christ’s lack of knowledge of the timing of his coming in glory

Mark 13:32 ESV

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.