March 22

according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. — 1 Pet 1:2 BSB

Foreknowledge of the elect in the divine economy precedes election. "Whom He foreknew, He also predestined." This foreknowledge is not an eternal foreseeing of faith or love in time, as though God’s choice of His people was based on these qualities. Instead, it first implies the complete knowledge God had of His elect, including everything concerning them—all their depths of sin, rebellion, disobedience, and ungodliness before they were called by grace, and all their grievous backslidings, slips, and falls after being touched by His mercy.

Secondly and most importantly, it signifies the good will, pleasure, and everlasting love of God the Father, by which He foreknew them with holy approval, divine affection, and unchangeable delight. He viewed them in His dear Son, chosen in Him and accepted in the Beloved. Therefore, election is not a dry, mechanical selection but a personal and loving choice, grounded in God’s foreknowledge of each member of His elect family. Though each individual differs from one another in countless ways, both naturally and spiritually, God's approving knowledge of each one harmonizes perfectly with His determined choice. To experience this in the soul is a sweet and precious reality.

We don’t truly know ourselves. We may have glimpsed something of our fallen nature, understanding some of the evils that work within us. We may have fought a few skirmishes or even faced hot battles with our proud, rebellious, unbelieving, and wicked hearts. But we do not know ourselves as God knows us. Though we might cry, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts," our understanding of ourselves is shallow and superficial compared to God's infinite knowledge. We seldom measure our sinfulness by God’s holiness or look into the depths of our nature as God sees them. But when we realize that He who knew us fully—who knew all we would be in our fallen state—chose us by His determinate decree in His dear Son, it lifts our souls out of the pit of despair into which our awareness of sin continually casts us.