When God test us, it is also a temptation to be disobedient and sin, you are making a “straw man†by suggesting a difference. If you read this article which I seriously doubt, you will better understand the true meaning of “foreknew’ in respect to God’s usage.
Bubba
John Piper wrote:
For Those Whom He Foreknew"
“Verse 29: "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." What does "foreknew" mean? Some have taken it to mean that God simply foresees who will believe on him and these are the ones he predestines to be like Jesus. But this assumes two things that are not true. One is that the faith God foresees is ultimately and decisively our work, not his work. In other words, the point of this interpretation is that God does not cause our faith, he only foresees the faith which we cause.
Now this is not what the Bible teaches, not elsewhere (Philippians 1:29; Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Timothy 2:24-26; Matthew 16:17), nor here in the context. When Paul says in Romans 8:30, "Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified," he means all the called are justified. But to be justified we must believe (Romans 5:1). So he is saying all those who are called believe and are justified. But how can he say ALL who are called believe? The reason, as I tried to show in the exposition of "called" in verse 28, is that the call is the powerful work of God to bring about what he demands. It's an effective call. It's a call that creates what it commands. It's a call like "Lazarus, come forth!" and the dead man lives. So the point is, believing for justification is not some thing I do on my own. God enables me. God empowers me. I must do it. Believing is something I do. But my doing is a gift of God. I do not take ultimate credit for it. I thank God for it. I am saved by sovereign grace from first to last.
So it is wrong to assume that when Romans 8:29 says, "God foreknew" some, it means he simply foresaw that they would believe by their own power. He gave that power, and so some something more is going on here than the mere foreseeing of what we do.
Here's the other mistaken assumption of this view. It assumes that the meaning of "foreknowing" is not the meaning it has in many Old and New Testament texts that would give a more coherent meaning to this passage. Listen to these uses of "know" and ask yourself what each means. In Genesis 18:19 God says of Abraham, "I have known him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord." Virtually all the English versions translate this, "I have chosen him." In Amos 3:2 God says to the people of Israel, "You only have I known among all the families of the earth." He knew about all the families, but only chose Israel. In Matthew 7:23 Jesus said to the hypocrites at the judgment day, "I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." Psalm 1:6 says, "The Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish." He knows about the way of the wicked too. But he knows the way of the righteous in the sense of approving and recognizing and loving. In Hosea 13:5 God says to Israel, "I knew you in the wilderness, In the land of drought," meaning he took note of your plight and cared for you. And Genesis 4:1 says, "Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain." That is, he made her his, and knew her intimately and loved her.
Because of all those texts I think John Stott and John Murray are exactly right when both of them say, ""Know' . . . is used in a sense practically synonymous with "love' . . . "Whom he foreknow' . . . is therefore virtually equivalent to "whom he foreloved.'" Foreknowledge, is "sovereign , distinguishing love" (John Stott, quoting Murray, Romans, p. 249). It's virtually the same as set your affection on and choose for your own.
So the meaning of the first act of God in Romans 8:29 is that God foreknows his own people in the sense that he chooses them and loves them and cares for them. Paul will speak of this later in the language of "choosing" or "election" (Romans 8:33; 9:11; 11:5,7).
All things will work together for your good if you are called, and love God, because, as verse 29 says, God has known you, and chosen you, and loved you, from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4f; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelatin 13:8; 17:8)â€Â
Bubba
John Piper wrote:
For Those Whom He Foreknew"
“Verse 29: "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." What does "foreknew" mean? Some have taken it to mean that God simply foresees who will believe on him and these are the ones he predestines to be like Jesus. But this assumes two things that are not true. One is that the faith God foresees is ultimately and decisively our work, not his work. In other words, the point of this interpretation is that God does not cause our faith, he only foresees the faith which we cause.
Now this is not what the Bible teaches, not elsewhere (Philippians 1:29; Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Timothy 2:24-26; Matthew 16:17), nor here in the context. When Paul says in Romans 8:30, "Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified," he means all the called are justified. But to be justified we must believe (Romans 5:1). So he is saying all those who are called believe and are justified. But how can he say ALL who are called believe? The reason, as I tried to show in the exposition of "called" in verse 28, is that the call is the powerful work of God to bring about what he demands. It's an effective call. It's a call that creates what it commands. It's a call like "Lazarus, come forth!" and the dead man lives. So the point is, believing for justification is not some thing I do on my own. God enables me. God empowers me. I must do it. Believing is something I do. But my doing is a gift of God. I do not take ultimate credit for it. I thank God for it. I am saved by sovereign grace from first to last.
So it is wrong to assume that when Romans 8:29 says, "God foreknew" some, it means he simply foresaw that they would believe by their own power. He gave that power, and so some something more is going on here than the mere foreseeing of what we do.
Here's the other mistaken assumption of this view. It assumes that the meaning of "foreknowing" is not the meaning it has in many Old and New Testament texts that would give a more coherent meaning to this passage. Listen to these uses of "know" and ask yourself what each means. In Genesis 18:19 God says of Abraham, "I have known him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord." Virtually all the English versions translate this, "I have chosen him." In Amos 3:2 God says to the people of Israel, "You only have I known among all the families of the earth." He knew about all the families, but only chose Israel. In Matthew 7:23 Jesus said to the hypocrites at the judgment day, "I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness." Psalm 1:6 says, "The Lord knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish." He knows about the way of the wicked too. But he knows the way of the righteous in the sense of approving and recognizing and loving. In Hosea 13:5 God says to Israel, "I knew you in the wilderness, In the land of drought," meaning he took note of your plight and cared for you. And Genesis 4:1 says, "Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain." That is, he made her his, and knew her intimately and loved her.
Because of all those texts I think John Stott and John Murray are exactly right when both of them say, ""Know' . . . is used in a sense practically synonymous with "love' . . . "Whom he foreknow' . . . is therefore virtually equivalent to "whom he foreloved.'" Foreknowledge, is "sovereign , distinguishing love" (John Stott, quoting Murray, Romans, p. 249). It's virtually the same as set your affection on and choose for your own.
So the meaning of the first act of God in Romans 8:29 is that God foreknows his own people in the sense that he chooses them and loves them and cares for them. Paul will speak of this later in the language of "choosing" or "election" (Romans 8:33; 9:11; 11:5,7).
All things will work together for your good if you are called, and love God, because, as verse 29 says, God has known you, and chosen you, and loved you, from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4f; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 Peter 1:20; Revelatin 13:8; 17:8)â€Â
