Romans 8:29-30
29 For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.
“Those God foreknew” is the key to the question of how man’s free will interacts with God’s Sovereignty. Oxford Dictionary defines foreknew as “being aware of an event before it happens”. God knows the beginning of time until the end of time. Therefore, He foreknew everything moment by moment that would happen throughout His creation beginning to end. A staggering thought.
Before God created Adam, God foreknew that Adam and Eve through their free will would sin. He also foreknew Cain was going to kill Able. Before Gabrial gave Mary the news she would give birth to the Messiah, God foreknew what Mary’s free will response would be. Before Jesus was born, God foreknew Judas would walk with Jesus for three years as a friend and then, using his free, would betray Him. No event in all of history is a surprise to God.
Before any of God’s children are born, He knows the number of their days.
Psalm 139:16
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.
That being true, He foreknew at what day in our lives we would respond to His call. He also knows those that will never respond to His call. That is where man’s free will interacts with God’s sovereignty. The question is will we respond or not? But God already knows what we will do.
Therefore, the Scripture says in Romans 8:29
For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Those that God foreknew would answer His call are predestined to become brothers and sisters of Jesus.
Then Romans 8:30 goes on to describe the rest of our Christian walk.
“And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.”
Because He foreknew His children, He predestined them to be in His family and He called them to do good works in His Kingdom.
Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”.
God is sovereign and will complete His plan with His children. His children are people that He foreknew would follow Him before He created anything. That thought is overwhelming to me. Billions of people with a free will to choose to follow Him as their Lord and Master interacting with His Kingdom to complete His plan that was created before it all began.
Each one of us that are His children are a tiny thread that He weaves into His creation along with the billions of other threads. Our thread of four or five active decades are only a small part of the 6000+ year history of mankind that He is using to complete His masterpiece. That thought is amazing to me and beyond my comprehension. All praise and glory belong to our amazing God!
Christian Life Coach 