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It was the determinate counsel of God that in the fullness of time He would send His
Son, Who should willingly offer Himself an all-sufficient sacrifice for sin. When the
same Son stood among men, He said:
"Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life that I might take it
again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay down of Myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father"
(John 10: 17, 18).
Here in other language is expressed "the determinate counsel of God". There was
however, as we all know, another side to this great question. "Wicked hands" took Him
and crucified Him. This was "foreknown" by God for "known unto God are all His
works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15: 18), and as all His works are related
down the stream of time with the countless million works of man, it follows that God's
foreknowledge must comprehend what free agents uncompelled by any necessity shall at
any time do.
The presence of the word "by wicked hands" makes it impossible for
"foreknowledge" to be the same as the "predetermined counsel", for then God would
have "willed" "wickedness", and as wickedness is essentially that which is contrary to
His will, the whole becomes an involved absurdity. Contingent actions foreknown, do
not always, of necessity, take place. An example is found in I Sam. 23: 10-13. David
asked the Lord whether Saul would come down to Keilah, and the answer was "He will
come down". David consequently enquired whether the men of Keilah would deliver
him up to Saul, and again the Lord answered "They will deliver thee up", as a result of
this "foreknowledge of God" David withdrew, and neither did Saul come down nor did
the men of Keilah deliver him up. Here then is an example of foreknowledge which most
certainly was not "predetermination", for nothing happened. Whenever and wherever we
have a world of contingency, a world in which has been introduced the word "if", so that
even God Himself says "if you do this or that, then I will do so and so".
Jonah preached to Nineveh "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown" but
Nineveh repented, and Nineveh was not overthrown. We shall be wise therefore, to leave
the word foreknowledge to mean just what it says and no more. The infinite knowledge
of God makes it impossible that He shall not know who will preach and who will teach;
where they will go, and when they will go; who shall hear, who reject, who accept, and
who be left without a word of the gospel. The one great demand upon all who hear the
gospel is that they believe the testimony of God concerning His Son. Whoever so
believes passes into all the blessings purchased by the blood of Christ. Whoever does not
believe makes God a liar (I John 5: 10). If there were any idea of preordination in this,
refusal to believe would be as much a part of God's predeterminate decree as is election
to glory, and it would not be possible to make God a liar by so refusing His testimony.
Further, in the passage before us foreknowledge is differentiated from predestination, for
we read: "Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate." If we alter the word
"foreknow" to any word bearing the sense of predetermining or predestinating, the