God in the Gospel

Intro.

A man goes to the doctor, just as he has a million times before in his life. He sits on the paper covered bed, has his vitals taken, and the nurse says, “The doctor will be with you shortly.” He grins and politely thanks her, but his mind is racing. He isn’t here for just any old annual check up. No, he’s here for a greater reason than that. Recently, he had been feeling quite awful. So, like any responsible adult, he went to the ER and got looked at. They took all the regular tests plus an ultra-sound and a PET scan — and there it was. An abnormal was found. Once they had seen that, they scheduled him for a biopsy and gave him some medicine for his comfort. Now, as he awaited the doctor, he was soon to find out his biopsy results. She comes in, and gives it to him straight, the word no one wants to here: cancer. Given this diagnosis, the man then asks, “So, what’s the prognosis?”

That word, prognosis, is going to play a big part in our lesson today.

1 Peter 1:2 CSB

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

I had planned on taking this whole verse as a whole for one sermon, however I think now it is better to devote the time to explain each portion, and what each Person in the Godhead does in our salvation. Last week we discovered that the Gospel is far, far better than the Law given through Moses in that it is predicated on better promises, and we have a better high priest offering a better sacrifice. This week, we begin getting into the Trinity’s involvement in salvation beginning with the “foreknowledge of God the Father.”

Prognosis

First, lets look at the actual word being used here that is translated as “foreknowledge”. The word is actually “prognosis” — and in our modern usage, that word basically means what is going to happen, or the course that a disease is going to take. It is the knowledge of what is going to happen before it has occurred. That is also a very accurate way to describe what it means in the Greek. “Foreknowledge” simply means exactly that: God that Father knew us before we existed, and He knew our election before we existed!

Predestined

To further understand this foreknowledge of God, and His predestining us to our adoption as sons according to Eph. 1.5

Ephesians 1:5 CSB

He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Let’s look at how Paul connects these two ideas in his epistle to the Romans.

Romans 8:29–31 CSB

For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

The question that is commonly raised on the issue of predestination is this: Has God’s predestination and election made man’s agency null and void?

In short, the answer is “No.” And we will be spending some time looking at that this morning.

Now, I want to be in full disclosure that the Greek words translated “foreknowledge” in 1 Peter and Romans are not the same — but they also aren’t very different. The difference comes in recognizing which word for “knowledge” is used. For Romans, it is a perceptual knowledge and in 1 Peter it is a more involved, experiential type of knowledge. With that difference being noted, they are undoubtedly related to one another in this doctrine.

Romans says “those whom God foreknew” — meaning those whom He saw, in His omniscient knowledge, accepting the Gospel of Christ and seeing it before they were even born.

Those whom He foreknew He also predestined “to be conformed into the image of His Son, the He might be the firstborn of many brethren.” Here we come to that word “. This is the deciding work of God toward us.

Ephesians 1:4 CSB

For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him.

God chose us before the foundation of the world, because as Romans says He foreknew us and knew beforehand that we would walk with the Lord. Therefore, having that knowledge He chose us, predestined us, to be conformed to the image of Christ. That is the determined consequence of faith in Christ, and the Father chose you to be in Christ and predestined to be conformed to His image and to the adoption as sons!

Has God then nullified human agency? No! He has looked into the vastness of Time and known those who would know Christ, and therefore chose them ahead of their existence! It may be a bit confusing, but the Christian must settle on this: We are chosen of God, and beloved children through faith in Christ! He in His grace has seen, known, and adopted us through the only Begotten Son.

So, when our brother Peter writes that we are the elect “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” it is more than just Him knowing ahead of time, but it also is not that He did not allow you any option. Our God in all His wisdom and grace and love chose the Church in Christ from before the foundation of the World.

No After-Thought

Now, as a more peripheral point I want us to grab onto something else. There are those who would tell you that God’s original plan to bring about His Kingdom though Jesus failed due to the crucifixion, and that the creation of the Church is the product of quick thinking on God’s part to preserve His plan until the Second Coming when the Kingdom *really* comes.

Firstly, let’s not let there be any mistake about it: That is a lie from the Adversary. God is not so weak and blind as to be out-witted by the forces of sin and darkness! Never let that thought ever be entertained in your mind!

Secondly, we need to grasp the truth of the matter — God had always purposed the Church to exist! And He has foreknown and thus predestined that we who have placed our faith in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins at baptism would be in His Church! He has always seen you, known you (remember Psalm 139) and He has always destined you to be in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ! In accordance with His foreknowledge, He has also, says v. 3, “caused us to be born again to a living hope by Christ’s resurrection!

Romans says again that those He predestined He called. Called how? By the Gospel of Jesus, and the word of God will not return to God empty, says Isaiah. How do we know it is the Gospel? Paul says so in 2 Thess. 2:14.

He foreknew you in Christ, predestined you to be conformed in the image of Christ, and has brought you into Christ by calling you through the Gospel, “the power of God to all who believe.”

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”!

Inventory

So what shall we do with this information? Praise God from your heart, give Him thanks, because in His mercy and love He has brought us to Christ through His calling by the Gospel!

Know it and believe it in your heart that you did not deserve to be saved by the Lord, but He had mercy and is kind toward us. If you have not yet been baptized for the forgiveness of your sins having faith in God, His patience toward you is a kindness meant to bring you to repentance as you hear the Gospel!