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BEFORE THE FOUNDATION.
(1)
With reference to Christ alone:
(a)
"Thou lovedst Me, before the foundation of the world" (John 17: 24).
(b)
"As of a lamb without blemish and without spot; who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world" (I Pet. 1: 19, 20).
(2)
With reference to the Redeemed:
"Chosen in Him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1: 4).
Comment upon the most obvious difference between these two sets of passages is
unnecessary. Let us, however, not miss one precious item of doctrine that is revealed by
comparing the three references to "before the foundation" together.
In John 17: 24 Christ was "loved" agapao; in I Pet. 1: 19, 20 He was "without
blemish and without spot" amomos. In Eph. 1: 4 the believer is said to have been
chosen before the foundation of the world "in love" agape, to be "blameless" amomos.
Here, those who were chosen in Christ, were looked upon as being so closely
identified with Him, that the same terms are used. No wonder that as we proceed we read
of further identification with the Beloved, that not only speaks of being "crucified
together with Christ" but "raised together" as in the early ministry of Paul, but "seated
together" and ultimately to be manifested together with Him in glory in the epistles of the
Mystery.
These two sets of terms "before" and "since" indicate two distinct time periods.
Further studies will show that "before" or "since" the age times is a somewhat similar set
of terms, but before these can be allied we must arrive at some understanding of the
meaning of the word "foundation".
Now, happily, we have a New Testament quotation in Heb. 1: 10, where the word
"foundation" is expressed by the word themelion, but when we turn to any of the
passages where the words "before" or "from" the foundation of the world occur,
themelion is not found, but instead the word katabole is employed.
Now it is impossible to argue that Paul, for some peculiar reason, would not and did
not employ the word themelion, for it occurs as the translation of the foundation of a
temple in Eph. 2: 20, "the foundation of the apostles and prophets", and again in
I Cor. 3: 10 and II Tim. 2: 19. Therefore, there must be some good reason for
choosing so different a word as katabole. This word has entered into our own language
as a biological term, metabolism, being the name given to the process in an organism or a
living cell, by which nutritive material is built up into living matter and this process is
divided into (1) constructive metabolism which is called anabolism, by which
protoplasm is broken down into simpler substances to perform special functions; and
(2) destructive metabolism, which is called katabolism.