Page 83 - Pastoral Epistles student textbook

John 3:27. A person can receive only what is given them from heaven.
1 Corinthians 2:14. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come
from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them
because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
Matthew 13:11. He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of
heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
Ephesians 1:4 says “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and without blemish before him in love. The elect of God are those whom God has chosen to be
saved throughout all eternity, and this decision was made before any person was ever created.

However, according to I Peter 1 and Roman 8, this decision to elect some was based according to the
foreknowledge of God.

I Peter 1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the
Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the
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foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
Romans 8:28-29: For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to
the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these
whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these
whom He justified, He also glorified.

What does “according to the foreknowledge of God” mean?

We must remember that God is not bound by time. There is no sequence of events with Him. He did
not look ahead and see who would believe and then select them. He knew who would believe at the
same instant that He chose who would believe…both God’s knowledge and man’s choice were bound
together as one; they are coextensive. God’s election cannot be made independent of His
foreknowledge.

God gave every man free-will to either reject the Gospel or accept the Gospel, and God will hold every
man accountable for his choices. Yet God knows every choice every man will ever make, because He is
omniscient! He knows everything, past, present, and future. That why the offer of the Gospel to
sinners requires a man to respond in faith or believe or receive or accept. There are multiple verses
that tell us the God offers salvation to all men who will believe. But not all do. Those who believe are
God’s elect and those who don’t believe are not God’s elect.

God desires all men to come to Him in Faith and Repentance!
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead
he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But not everyone is willing to repent and believe!

John 6:37-39. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to
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me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but
to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall
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lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
This verse is an example of both God’s sovereignty in selecting the elect and man’s
responsibility in coming to Christ. On one hand, only those the Father preordains to do so will

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