In these verses and in the chapters ahead of us, Paul shows us the mind of God. It's as though he had lifted us up into the heavenlies to observe the world from the perspective of eternity. As we read, time drops away, and all history lies before us, and we watch as God sets into motion His plan to save broken, sinful people and transform them until they become like His Son.

Before we ever existed, God knew us. He saw who would repent and come to Him by faith and who would not. And for those He knew would come He laid out a plan for their lives... before they were born.

This concept of God's foreknowledge is confusing for many. There are those who assume it to mean God even decided who will and who won't repent and believe, which, if that were true, would mean that humans have no part to play in deciding their eternal destiny. Some are chosen for heaven, and the rest are abandoned to an eternity apart from God. But one need only read carefully what Paul says in these chapters of Romans (9-11) to see that God never takes that freedom away. In fact, He remains always ready to forgive and restore even those who stubbornly reject Him (Ro 9:30-32; 10:3; 9-13; 11:19-23, 32).

But though God does not take away our freedom to choose Him, neither does He stand by passively and merely watch as our lives unfold. He is actively at work in our lives long before a prayer of surrender is ever prayed. He sets His grace upon us even before we've been conceived in the womb. You might say we who are "foreknown" have always belonged to Him.

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