The People of God, Part 1:

Those Whom God Knew Before.

Rom 8:29 "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."

Introductory Thoughts

v We are continuing this wonderful passage, from 8:17-8:39, which drills home the doctrine of the Security of the Believer.

v We have now dealt with 8:28, that wonderful, marvelous verse which tells us about:

§ God’s Providence on behalf of His people

§ His people—we are introduced to them with two statements about them:

¨ They are those who love God

¨ They are the called according to His purpose

· Now, in 8:29, we are going to look again at His people, and we are going to see three things about His people:

§ Who they are—another descriptive term is used about them which tells us who God’s people are.

§ What is their destiny—God’s people have a pre-determined destiny, a wonderful destiny, to be conformed to the image of Christ

§ Why God is doing this. “Why?”, is a question seldom answered in the Bible, but it is answered in 8:29 of Romans

· Before we begin, we must remember the One Point of Grace—God Saves Sinners

(a) God does not help sinners save themselves

(b) God does not make salvation possible if the sinner will contribute certain things to the process...

(c) God has not set up some kind of automatic salvation machine which the sinner operates

God SAVES Sinners

God made the plan

God accomplished redemption on Calvary

God awakens the dead sinner, who has no ability to help himself or herself

God saves the awakened sinner through faith in the shed blood of Christ Jesus

God keeps the saved sinner by His power

1. Who Are the People of God?— Rom 8:29 "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."

a. Those Whom God Knew Before—

(1) God has always had a people, a remnant, and He gave these people to His Son for special care—Rom 8:29 "

(2) Knowledge—the word here is ginosko, which refers to experiential knowlege

(3) This is about Whom God knew, not what He knew about them.

(a) Some teach that God foresaw who would believe and chose people based on that foresight. That is not the doctrine of foreknowledge found in the Bible—that is the invention of men.

(b) That is the Roman Catholic doctrine of foreknowledge.

b. The People known before

(1) Known before, like Jeremiah—Jer 1:4-5 "Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.""

(2) Known before, and therefore chosen—1 Pet 1:2 "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied."

(3) 2 Th 2:13-14 "But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."

c. The People given by the Father to the Son

(1) John 6:37 ""All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."

(2) John 17:2-3 ""as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

(3) John 17:6 ""I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word."

(4) John 17:9 ""I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours."

(5) John 17:20 ""I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;"

(6) John 17:24 ""Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world."

d. The People Saved by the Son.

(1) Mat 1:21 ""And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.""

(2) John 10:11 ""I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep."

(3) John 10:14-15 ""I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 "As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep."

(4) John 10:17-18 ""Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 "No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.""

(5) John 10:26-28 ""But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."


e. The people who love God, the people called—sermon on 8:28c— Rom 8:28 "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

* Having laid the ground work, we need to look at two main areas to see what the Bible teaches about foreknowledge:

We will first look at the meaning and use of the words translated "foreknowledge" in the New Testament.

Then we will examine the contexts of the verses which directly correlate foreknowledge, election, and/or predestination.

May God help us as we seek to increase understanding of His word......

2. The meaning and use of the words translated "foreknowledge" in the New Testament.

In the context of redemption, there are five incidences of the root words translated foreknowledge :

a. The first mention of foreknowledge (prognosis)--this is an important reference, because it helps understand the use of foreknowledge throughout the rest of the New Testament.

Acts 2:23 "Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;

"The words boule (counsel) and prognosis (foreknowledge) are in a construction called Granville Sharp's rule, where two nouns are in the same case, connected by kai (and), the first noun preceded by the article, the second noun without the article. The rule states that in this construction, the second noun refers to the same thing to which the first noun does, and is a further description of it. That means that boule and prognosis refer to the same thing, the act of selecting the One out of the Persons of the Godhead who would be the Lamb slain as the Sacrifice for sin. The word prognosis, therefore means more here than mere previous knowledge, even though that knowledge be part of the omniscience of God. It partakes of the nature of boule, and is part and parcel of the same act. It means "foreordination." Wuest's Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, Vol 1, Romans, page 142.

b. The second mention of foreknowledge (proginosko)

Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Even a casual examination of this verse shows us that the prescience view (God forsees, and then elects) is weak. This verse does not speak of what God knew, but whom He knew. It is not that God knew something about some people so He would be influenced to choose them, it is that He knew them--knew them in an intimate way, as He said earlier in the Bible about Jeremiah:

Jer 1:4-5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."

God is not saying that He knew about Jeremiah, He is saying that He knew Jeremiah. In a similar vein, God does not know the lost:

Mat 7:22 "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
Mat 7:23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'

I would hope that anyone hearing this would admit that the Almighty God "knows about" the lost—He knows everything—but He does not know them, as He knows His people

c. The third mention (proginosko)--the emphasis is the same here in this verse--it is whom, not what, God knew......

Rom 11:2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew

d. The fourth mention--this verse directly links election and foreknowledge.

1 Pet 1:2 – “…elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

e. The fifth mention: in this verse, the word proginosko is translated as foreordained, not foreknown:

1 Pet 1:20 “… He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you…”

3. Examination of the contexts of the foreknowledge verses

a. Two of the verses have to do with God’s foreknowledge of the crucifixion.

(1) The verses—Acts 2:23 ""Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;"

(2) 1 Pet 1:18-21 "knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you…”

(3) The context of the crucifixion more fully explained: Acts 4: 26 The kings of the earth took their stand, And the rulers were gathered together Against the LORD and against His Christ.' 27 "For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 "to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done."


(a) Did God forsee that Christ would be crucified, or did God plan that Christ would be crucified?
(b) The answer, reinforced by many scriptures, is that this was God’s plan from all eternity.

(c) Here again, we need to ask: does the word proginosko refer to something God foresaw? Did God only forsee that Christ would come? Of course not! God planned for Christ to come—our Savior's mission to earth was not a product of foresight, but of foreordination; Christ's redemptive acts were the product of Divine Purpose. The word proginosko in the verse above refers to what God had purposed--it refers to the same principle mentioned in Acts 2:23--foreknowledge = determinate counsel.

b. Rom 8:28-29 – The context of Romans 8:29 is the purpose and the acts of God. There is a chain of words which refers to the great doctrine of predestination here:

(1) purpose
(2) foreknowledge
(3) predestination
(4) calling
(5) justified
(6) glorified

c. Rom 8:28 ….. according to His purpose…. Rom 8:29 For whom He foreknew,

d. And read: Rom 8:31-39.

(1) Is there any support in these verses for the idea that salvation occurred because God foresaw that certain people would believe, and therefore chose those who within themselves had the innate ability and inclination to choose Him and be saved?

(2) No, these verses support the idea of a sovereign God, who knew those people in His infinite loving, pre-acquaintanceship, and lavished upon the objects of His love all things, even though they had not one iota of their own to contribute to the process.

e. Rom 11:1-6 "I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 3 "LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life"? 4 But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." 5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work."

(1) [ He has cast away some in Israel--but not those whom He foreknew--the Remnant about which He spoke to Elijah] ***Rom 11:3-4

(2) [Paul interprets verses 2-4 above the same I do, and in so doing, Paul defines the relationship between the divine and human perspectives in salvation...]


f. The context of the faith having been abundantly demonstrated by the verses above, the last of our three passages becomes crystal clear.

g. 1 Pet 1:1-5—

(1) 1 Pet 1:1 “…Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia…” [Peter is writing to Jewish Christians living in various places. He is writing to the Remnant spoken of in Rom 11:1-7]

(2) 1 Pet 1:2 elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. [Since Peter is talking to the Remnant of Rom 11:1-7, the meaning of "elect according foreknowledge" is the same as the meaning of foreknowledge in Rom 11:2. Peter adds explanatory words as well, which demonstrate the particular acts of the three Persons of the Trinity in the salvation of the readers. It was the Father's foreknowing love and pre-acquaintanceship, the Spirit's drawing and setting aside, and the Son's Sacrifice...]

(3) 1 Pet 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,..” [It is God's actions which have caused us to be born again, as James said:] James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

(4) “…1 Pet 1:4 to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time…” [Just as it is God who loved us in His foreknowledge, and just as it is God who therefore saved us, and just as it is God who called us and caused us to be born again, it is God who will keep us saved. What a wonderful passage, which ties this all together!]

4. Soli Deo Gloria--The Glory to God Alone