What the Bible says about Before the Foundation of the World
(From Forerunner Commentary)
When we parse what Jesus says in John 6:44, 65, we learn some amazing things. First is the remarkable fact that the Father Himself initiates the relationship. The great, almighty, and omniscient God, Ruler of the universe, decides to invite or summon a particular human being into fellowship with His Son. He does not consider such a task to be beneath Him, but He takes a personal interest in each individual called into His church. He knows each of them long before they ever thought of Him (consider Psalm 139:13; Jeremiah 1:5; Romans 8:29).
Second, Jesus explicitly asserts that no one can come to Him except through the Father's calling. While most people, even nominal Christians, believe that they can find God if they seek Him long and hard enough, the Bible disagrees. David tells us in Psalm 14:2-3: "The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one." The apostle Paul repeats this in Romans 3:11, "There is none who seeks after God." Human beings are milling about in a world of profound religious confusion—worshipping thousands of gods of their own making, seeking gods to please themselves—but to know and worship the true God, they must be granted access by the Father.
Third, our Savior uses an interesting word to picture what God does to summon us: The Father "draws" us. "Draws" is translated from the Greek word helkúö, which in its most literal sense can also mean "to drag" (see Acts 16:19; 21:30; James 2:6)—and with some of us, it may well have happened with us kicking and screaming! A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Third Edition (BDAG) provides a helpful nuance of this word's meaning:
To move an object from one area to another in a pulling motion, draw, with implication that the object being moved is incapable of propelling itself or in the case of pers. [sic] is unwilling to do so voluntarily, in either case with implication of exertion on the part of the mover. . . .
This explanation reinforces the points we have already seen. When the Father initiates His calling, the individual does not have the capability to move himself into a relationship with Him, nor would he do so voluntarily, being at enmity with God (see Romans 8:7). God, therefore, must make the effort to reach out to the individual and open the way for fellowship with Him and His Son. But how does He do this?
In Hosea 11:3-4, God speaks of His treatment of Israel, "I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck." In a similar vein, Paul writes in Romans 11:5, "Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Here, the apostle uses the term "election" in a similar sense as Jesus speaks of few being chosen (Matthew 20:16; 22:14), an idea parallel to being drawn to Christ. The Father elects or selects only a few to understand the truth and have a relationship with Him and His Son, and He does this out of love by His grace. That is, His calling is a freely given gift; nothing that we are or have done compels God to draw us to Christ.
God's calling, then, is by grace, but what does He do to call a person? John 8:43, where Jesus is arguing with some Jews, provides a clue: "Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word." They were physically hearing His words, but they were incapable of spiritually comprehending His meaning. Yet, converted Christians can understand Him. Thus, part of the miracle of God's calling is that, through His Spirit (I Corinthians 2:10-16), the Father opens the mind to spiritual understanding, and as Paul explains it, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).
In this way, He gives us the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8), by which we can truly believe and then act upon what He says. We can see this in the calling of Lydia, whom Paul met in Philippi: "The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul" (Acts 16:14), and she was baptized soon thereafter.
The Bible tells us that God usually chooses the lowly among earth's people—the foolish, the weak, the base, and the despised of the world (I Corinthians 1:27-28), but our goal is to become "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" (I Peter 2:9). In other words, we have not been called to remain "just as we are." We have a "heavenly" (Hebrews 3:1) and "a holy calling" (II Timothy 1:9), one that we must "walk worthy of" (Ephesians 4:1).
The Father has summoned, invited, us to the greatest purpose any human being can be asked to participate in: "to be conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29), to prepare to be firstfruits of His spiritual harvest (James 1:18; Revelation 14:4), to be kings and priests in His Kingdom (Revelation 1:6; 5:10), and to be the Bride of Christ (Revelation 19:7-9). As the author of Hebrews urges us, "See that you do not refuse Him who speaks" (Hebrews 12:25).
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Our Awesome CallingRelated Topics: Appreciating Our Calling | Before the Foundation of the World | Calling, Uniqueness of | Conformed to God's Image | Conformed to Image of Jesus Christ | Father Does the Calling | Firstfruits of God | God Called the Weak and the Base | Kings and Priests | No one Comes to Christ unless Father Draws Him
These verses tie several things together. II Timothy 1:9 says that God's purpose began before time. Could God plan His awesome purpose without an end result in view? Would He name His message of salvation after something that was going to happen in the middle, or would He name it after the goal toward which He was working?
Peter calls God's purpose "the restoration of all things," another descriptive phrase for the good news of the Kingdom of God. God will put the Kingdom of God on earth, governing through His law. These verses explain not only the end toward which God is moving, but also that God has been prophesying of this since the world began. God too is looking toward the goal.
God's purpose began before time, but He has revealed this purpose to mankind since at least the days of Enoch, who lived long before Noah. In Jude, Enoch is quoted as saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints" (Jude 14). We must take God's word at face value: From the beginning He has prophesied of the culmination of His purpose.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Guard the Truth!
God always planned for our justification by faith. As for all who lived faithfully before Christ's human life, death, and resurrection, it is applied retroactively (Romans 4). Since God knew Adam and Eve would misuse the freedom of choice He gave them, leading to sin, He made provision for their justification (and ours) through the blood of Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world (Hebrews 9:26; I Peter 3:19-21; Revelation 13:8).
Martin G. Collins
Are You Justified?
His Word declares that in His love He predestined us "according to the good pleasure of His will." It does not say that He predestined us according to what He foresaw we would become, that He chose us because we were from a particular ethnic group, or that He picked us because of some mark of intelligence, character, looks, ability, or any other quality. Just as in Deuteronomy 7:7-8, His calling of us occurred out of the good pleasure of His will. He gave to us the same privileges and opportunities as He did to Jacob rather than Esau, and they were extended on the same basis - by God's election following the counsel of His own will and not by our works.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Sovereignty of God: Part ThreeRelated Topics: Before the Foundation of the World | Called According to God's Purpose | Called Out Ones | Calling | Calling Out | Calling, Uniqueness of | Elect , The | God's Purpose | God's Will | Predestination
He did not necessarily choose us as individuals before the foundation of the world, but He did decide that He would have a church, a group of people impregnated by His Spirit, a unique Family of His who would be in the image of His Son. The word "choose" suggests taking a smaller number out of a larger. In this case, the larger is the population of the earth, and the smaller number is that tiny remnant God has been working with - His church, His group, His family. The word "holy" implies the choosing had a moral aim in view. In other words, God was choosing a small number out of a large number, and the reason He was choosing this smaller number is to make this small number holy - holy as He is. He had a moral purpose in mind.
The apostle is saying we have been called, elected, become a part of this small group with a definite purpose in mind - that we should become holy. In order for us to become holy, God had to reveal some things to us, which Paul discusses in verses 5-12.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Awesome Cost of SalvationRelated Topics: Before the Foundation of the World | Begettal of Holy Spirit | Begettal of the Holy Spirit | Called According to God's Purpose | Called Out Ones | Calling | Calling Out | Calling, Uniqueness of | Chosen People | Elect , The | Family of God | God's Family | Holy | Holy People | Predestination | Separation | Separation from the World | Set Apart
God has predestined us from the beginning! What deep meaning is contained within this! Did God have us planned even before He created Adam and Eve? He might have! It can mean that. Predestination may not be general at all but very specific - that the great Mind that created everything had us in mind so long ago.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Unity (Part 3): Ephesians 4 (A)Related Topics: Before the Foundation of the World | Called According to God's Purpose | Called Out Ones | Calling | Calling Out | Calling, Uniqueness of | Chosen People | Elect , The | Predestination
"For I am the LORD. I do not change" (Malachi 3:6). He has never deviated from His purpose from the foundation of the world. Once He had planned what He would do, He set out on to fulfill His purpose, and He has never strayed from it. Genesis 1:26 suggests this strongly: "Let Us make man in Our image." What is He doing? He is reproducing Himself. If He is creating man "in His image," then He is reproducing Himself!
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part One)
This verse proves beyond dispute that God had the church in mind before the foundation of the world. "The foundation of the world" was laid in Adam and Eve's sin, so God had the church in mind before our first parents were ever offered to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or of the Tree of Life. God, from the very beginning, right up to this time, has had the church firmly in mind. He has been looking forward to the church, its formation, its growth, and its birth into His Family.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Holy Spirit and the Trinity (Part One)Related Topics: Before the Foundation of the World | Church | Church, The | Tree of Life | Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
What the Father is doing has nothing to do with the way we are or were. It has everything to do with His initiating and choosing us because He wants us, not because of anything that we may have done.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Awesome Cost of SalvationRelated Topics: Before the Foundation of the World | Called According to God's Purpose | Called Out Ones | Calling | Calling Out | Calling, Uniqueness of | Elect , The | From the Foundation of the World | God's Calling | God's Election | God's Plan | God's Purpose | God's Sovereignty | God's Will | Predestination
This gives us a picture of what is happening on earth. We can see what God is doing in a great, large scope, considering it over perhaps billions of years of time because verse 4 says that He did this before the foundation of the world. Some translations say "before the foundation of the creation." If we take the word to mean "creation," how old is the earth? Scientists say several billions of years—time beyond most people's thinking. Nevertheless, when He began to plan these things, God took into account that mankind might sin, and there would have to be something to redeem him, to buy him back, from his character flaws, his bondage to sin.
God has been planning this a long time. If the whole human lifetime is nothing but the blink of an eye compared to a thousand years, how much has God invested in terms of time? This is part of the cost we need to consider regarding Passover. This is no little thing that God is working out. We are so important to God that we are beyond value! We cannot compute it! He has billions of years invested in us! He has been thinking, planning, working things out so He can bring us into His Kingdom! It is awesome to consider!
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Awesome Cost of Salvation
Peter comments on God's operations in this sphere of His work. The King James Study Bible has an interesting note about the intent of this verse: "This is not merely advanced knowledge of, but when connected to 'before the foundation of the world,' [Ephesians 1:4] it means God determined in eternity past to bring certain ones of His creation into a special relationship with Him and each other at specific times" (emphasis added).
Consider the construction of a large building. As a new building is erected, the workers follow blueprints made by architects, engineers, designers, and draftsmen. Every detail of what is being built—where it sits on the property, perhaps ten thousand individual dimensions, water pipes, sewer lines, specifications of the foundation, composition of the flooring, steel columns, girders, electrical lines, conduit, brackets to support pipes, roofing materials, the color and composition of paints both inside and out, etc.—is determined, designed, and drafted on the plans before the actual construction began.
In principle, is this not a human form of God knowing the end from the beginning? Does this not compare to God appointing beforehand or predetermining when, where, and who does what? If men can do this on a small scale, why cannot God do this on an immensely more massive and complex scale with His vastly superior mind? Is not God's intellect of such magnitude that He can easily do this (Romans 11:33-36)? Does He not have sufficient time to plan, prepare, and bring these things to pass (Isaiah 57:15)? Dare we even think of Him as getting tired or wandering from the purpose He established for Himself (Psalm 121:3-4)?
Even so, do not get the impression that He does not react to how we use our free moral agency. If He did not react, chapters like Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 would not be necessary, for in these chapters He definitely says, "If you do this, I will do that." They obviously depict Him reacting to our choices. He contemplates and judges what we do. However, this in no way negates the fact that the Bible reveals Him as the Prime Mover in His creation, always in control even in what we consider bad circumstances that directly affect us.
John W. Ritenbaugh
God's Sovereignty and the Church's Condition (Part One)Related Topics: Before the Foundation of the World | Building Analogy | Building Metaphor | Calling | God's Calling | God's Intervention | God's Involvement | God's Plan | God's Purpose | God's Sovereignty | Predestination